What is melanin?
Without melanin we would look quite pale - in the truest sense of the word, because the dye ensures that our skin, hair and eyes are more or less colored. But what exactly is the dye and where does it come from?
This is what melanin is all about
- Melanins are brown to blackish pigments (dyes).
- they are in the skin to find where they determine the skin color. The more melanin the skin contains, the darker it is.
- The pigments can also be found in the hair and in the iris. The more melanin there is in the hair, the darker it is. Blue eyes have little dye, while brown eyes have a lot.
- From a chemical point of view, the pigments consist of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen - the basic building blocks of organic compounds.
This is how the synthesis is controlled
- Melanins are produced in the melanocytes, which are located in the basal layer of the epidermis (i.e. the lowest layer of the epidermis).
- They are made from dihydroxyphenylalanine, which in turn is made from the amino acid tyrosine.
- Of course, the melanocytes don't just produce the pigment on their own. Like almost everywhere in the body There is also a higher-level center here that stimulates the secretion of melanins in the melanocytes. The control center for melanin synthesis is the interstitial lobe of the pituitary gland. This forms the hormone MSH (melanocyte stimulating hormone), which stimulates production.
- But there is also a higher-level center for MSH production, namely the hypothalamus. The MRH (melanotropin-releasing hormone) that is produced here controls the secretion of MSH. The antagonist of the MRH is the MIH (melanotropin inhibiting hormone, also called melanostatin), which is also formed in the hypothalamus and the secretion of MSH (and thus of course also of melanin) inhibits.
There are actually only two eye colors: brown and blue. All other colors are ...
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