Melanins are an important factor determining the vulnerability of mammalian skin to UV radiation and thus to UV-induced skin cancers. Transgenic mice overexpressing hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) have extra-follicular dermal melanocytes, notably in the papillary upper dermis, and are susceptible to UV-induced melanoma. Pigmented HGF/SF neonatal mice are more susceptible than a...

Skin is a highly structured tissue, raising concerns as to whether skin pigmentation due to epidermal melanin may confound accurate measurements of underlying hemodynamics. Using both venous and arterial cuff occlusions as a means of inducing differential hemodynamic perturbations, we present analyses of spectra limited to the visible or near-infrared regime, in addition to a layered model appr...

Investigations were carried out to determine whether the melanin present in the blue and brown eyes were eumelanin, the melanin present in black hair and dark skin, or pheomelanin, the melanin present in red hair and the skin of people with red hair. Our results showed that UV-visible irradiation of blue or brown eye melanin did not produce any superoxide. Irradiation of 51Cr-labelled Ehrlich a...

Melanin is capable of transforming 99.9% of the absorbed sunlight energy into heat, reducing the risk of skin cancer. We here develop a melanin-mediated cancer immunotherapy strategy through a transdermal microneedle patch. B16F10 whole tumor lysate containing melanin is loaded into polymeric microneedles that allow sustained release of the lysate upon insertion into the skin. In combination wi...

In previous human skin models, it has been suggested that the colour of human skin is mostly determined by the concentration of melanin in the epidermal layer combined with the concentration of hemoglobin in the dermal layer. The colour of facial skin changes significantly with changes in the light incident upon it. In this paper we propose a method of normalizing the skin tones of human faces ...

Human skin owes its color to the presence of particles known as melanin. The primary function of melanin is to protect the upper levels of the skin from being damaged by the suns ultraviolet rays. This radiation poses a critical problem for our kind because we lack the dense coat of hair that acts as a sunscreen for most mammals. . . . Hairlessness exposes us to two kinds of radiation hazards: ...

The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is an important canid fur-bearing animal species worldwide. Chinese raccoon dogs that present a white mutation, especially those with a white coat. Exploring melanin biosynthesis in the hair and skin of raccoon dogs is important for understanding the survival and evolutionary mechanisms of them. In this study, we measured the content of melanin in the ...

Increased production and accumulation of melanin are characteristics of a large number of skin diseases, including melasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and lentigo. A number of clinical agents can reduce normal or abnormal pigmentation, but none of these have achieved satisfactory effects. This review discusses the mechanisms behind the different approaches. Tyrosinase is a pivotal enzy...

The highly molecular weight melanin pigments which are widespread in living organisms are usually formed due to the oxidation and polymerization of phenolic compounds into eumelanin, pheomelanin and neuromelanin. Almost of these pigments are stable, insoluble and biochemical substance resistance. They have a strong ability to absorb the ultraviolet radiation and scattering the light. There prop...

It has been known for a long time that the melanin pigments present in normal skin, hair, and most of malignant melanomas can be detected by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry. In this study, we used EPR imaging as a tool to map the concentration of melanin inside ex vivo human pigmented and nonpigmented melanomas and correlated this cartography with anatomopathology. We obtaine...