FIGURE 1

UVB stimulation increases SCF release from cultured human keratinocytes. (a) Effects of UVB irradiation on SCF release and cell viability of keratinocytes. The bars and polygonal line show the SCF content in culture medium and cell viability, respectively. SCF content was determined using an ELISA (Quantikine, R&D Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota). Cell viability was measured using an alamarBlue Assay (Alamar Biosciences, Sacramento, California) 24 h after the second UVB irradiation. Each value is presented as the meanSD of three determinations. ^**p<0.01, ^*p<0.05 as compared with the control by Dunnett's test. (b) Detection of soluble SCF by western blotting. Samples were concentrated 10-fold using a Centricon YM-10 (Millipore, Bedford, Massachusetts) and were separated by gel electrophoresis. Rabbit anti-SCF (Immuno-Biological Laboratories, Gunma, Japan) was used as a primary antibody.