What is the pigment that protects skin cells from solar radiation?
Question:
Answer:
Melanin
In humans, melanin is found in skin, hair, the pigmented epithelium underlying the iris, the medulla and zona reticularis of the adrenal gland, the stria vascularis of the inner ear, and in pigment bearing neurons of certain deep brain nuclei such as the locus ceruleus and the substantia nigra. Melanin is the primary determinant of human skin color.
Dermal melanin is produced by melanocytes, which are found in the stratum basale of the epidermis. Although human beings generally possess a similar concentration of melanocytes in their skin, the melanocytes in some individuals and ethnic groups more frequently or less frequently express the melanin-producing genes, thereby conferring a greater or lesser concentration of skin melanin. Some individual animals and humans have very little or no melanin in their bodies, a condition known as albinism.
Because melanin is an aggregate of smaller component molecules, there are a number of different types of melanin with differing proportions and bonding patterns of these component molecules. Both pheomelanin and eumelanin are found in human skin and hair, but eumelanin is the most abundant melanin in humans, as well as the form most likely to be deficient in albinism.
Melanin is commonly thought of as the agent that protects numerous life forms from solar UV radiation, but recent studies suggest that this polymer can have diverse functions in various organisms. For example in invertebrates, a major aspect of the innate immune defense system against invading pathogens involves melanin. Within minutes after infection, the microbe is encapsulated within melanin (melanization), and the generation of free radical byproducts during the formation of this capsule is thought to aid in their killing.
melanin?
melanin for sure
its produced by melanocytes in the skin
That would be melanin.
Melanin.
They contribute to giving your skin a dark color. Freckles, for instance, are just a "clump" of melanin.
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