Interactions between metal ions and different forms of melanin play significant roles in melanin biochemistry. The binding properties of natural melanin and related synthetic materials can be exploited for nonbiological applications, potentially including water purification. A method for investigating metal ion-melanin interactions on solid support is described, with lead as the initial target....

Scytalidium dimidiatum is a pigmented dematiaceous coelomycete that typically causes chronic superficial skin diseases and onychomycosis, as well as deeper infections, such as subcutaneous abscesses, mycetoma, and even fungemia in immunocompromised patients. A second species, Scytalidium hyalinum, has hyaline hyphae and arthroconidia and is considered by some authors to be an albino mutant of S...

PURPOSE To determine the influence of eye pigmentation on transscleral retinal delivery of celecoxib. METHODS Melanin content in ocular tissues of both the strains was determined by sodium hydroxide solubilization METHOD The affinity of celecoxib to synthetic and natural melanin was estimated by co-incubating celecoxib and melanin in isotonic phosphate-buffered saline. The binding affinity ...

Cancer cells have unique nanomechanical properties, i.e., they behave as if they were elastic. This property of cancer cells is believed to be one of the main reasons for their facilitated ability to spread and metastasize. Thus, the so-called nanomechanical phenotype of cancer cells is viewed as an important indicator of the cells' metastatic behavior. One of the most highly metastatic cancer ...

Melanogenesis is a complex multistep process of high molecular weight melanins production by hydroxylation and polymerization of polyphenols. Melanins have a wide range of applications other than being a sun - protection pigment. Melanogenesis pathway exists from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. It has evolved over years owing to the fact that the melanin pigment has different roles in diverse taxa o...

PURPOSE To find CT and MR characteristics of normal leptomeningeal melanin, which can be macroscopically visible at autopsy in decedents with deeply pigmented skin. METHODS For the normal anatomic study, there were two black subjects who had brain MR and CT within 12 months before autopsy that showed leptomeningeal melanin. For the normal imaging study, brain MR was done on 74 patients (31 bl...

Melanins represent virulence factors for several pathogenic fungi; the number of examples is growing. Thus, albino mutants of several genera (in one case, mutated precisely in the melanizing enzyme) exhibit decreased virulence in mice. We consider the phenomenon in relation to known chemical properties of melanin, beginning with biosynthesis from ortho-hydroquinone precursors which, when oxidiz...

introduction: ablative and nonablative lasers have been used to treat melasma. we aimed to assess and compare the combining q-switched nd:yag laser (qsnyl) and fractional erbium:yag laser (feyl) with qsnyl alone in treatment of melasma. methods: this randomized controlled clinical trial was performed in our research center during 2013-2014. women with melasma and without a history of keloid for...

nepeta satureioides boiss. has been used in traditional medicine of eastern countries and is famous for its medicinal properties. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of methanol (meoh), n -hexane and dichloromethane (ch 2 cl 2 ) fractions of the extract on melanin synthesis and oxidative stress in b16f10 melanoma cell line. the b16f10 cell line viability after treatment with increa...

The density of cutaneous melanin may be the property of the skin that protects it from damage by solar radiation, but there is not an accepted, noninvasive method of measuring it. To determine whether the density of cutaneous melanin can be estimated from reflectance of visible light by the skin, reflectance of 15-nm wavebands of light by the skin of the inner upper arm of each of 82 volunteers...