(n.) A black pigment found in the pigment-bearing cells of the skin (particularly in the skin of the negro), in the epithelial cells of the external layer of the retina (then called fuscin), in the outer layer of the choroid, and elsewhere. It is supposed to be derived from the decomposition of hemoglobin.
Example Sentences:
(1) Although the mechanism(s) by which melanin augments inflammation has not been defined, these data suggest that the binding of serum components (such as antibodies) to melanin may contribute to its proinflammatory effect.
(2) An unusual case of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid gland with melanin production is described.
(3) The melanins examined show significant differences in conductivity, thermal activation energy and photocurrent intensity values.
(4) The total number of neuronal cell bodies was 25% lower in AIDS (P less than 0.01) than in 12 age-matched controls, although the volume density of neuronal melanin did not differ from that of controls because the percentage of pigmented cell bodies was higher (P less than 0.01) and the cell bodies were more fully packed with melanin in AIDS.
(5) Comparison of the melanin-related metabolites excreted in urine of people with different capacities for melanin biosynthesis indicates that, of all measured substances, 5H6MI2C is the best urinary marker of melanin formation in the skin pigmentary system.
(6) Since neuromelanin in SN is the end-product of nonenzymatic dopamine degradation, the amount of melanin probably depends on the overall amount of dopamine produced during life.
(7) 1 After the injection of labelled procaine and lidocaine in mice, the location and concentration of radioactivity was demonstrated by autoradiographical methods.2 An accumulation in some endocrine cells such as the pancreatic islets, the hypophysis, the adrenal medulla and certain cells of the thyroid (probably representing the calcitonin-producing parafollicular cells) was shown.3 After the injection of [(14)C]-procaine in chicks, an accumulation of radioactivity was observed in the ultimobranchial gland (which produces calcitonin in birds), but not in the thyroid.4 Radioactivity was also shown to be strongly concentrated in structures containing melanin, such as the pigment of the eye, skin and hair and in some organs involved in the metabolism and excretion of these drugs.
(8) Microautoradiography showed that melanin-containing cells in the trunk and head kidney and in the olfactory rosettes also accumulated high amounts of radioactivity.
(9) In all cases there was a reduction of the melanin of the basal layer.
(10) Two melanotropic peptides, melanin concentration hormone (MCH) and alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), exert opposing actions on melanosome (melanin granule) movements within teleost pigment cells, melanocytes (melanophores).
(11) The varying epidermal melanin content that produces racial pigmentation determines the number of photons that reach the lower (malpighian) cellular layers, where vitamin D3 synthesis takes place.
(12) The synthesis of melanin involves the oxidation of phenolic substrates by the enzyme tyrosinase.
(13) Since such rats supposedly have a normal pigment distribution and a normal pattern of decussation at the optic chiasm, this finding appears to undermine the suggested role played by stalk melanin in establishing the laterality of retinal fibre projections in other mammalian species.
(14) The MNT was composed mainly of two cell types: small immature neuroblast-like cells and large columnar or cuboidal epithelial-like cells with or without melanin granules.
(15) L-tyrosine, a precurosr to melanin, has recently been shown to be a regulator of the melanogenic pathway in some cultured melanoma cell lines.
(16) By analysis of co-variance, the melanin content of melanocytes of black and white subjects was significantly (p less than 0.05) associated with susceptibility to UVA killing; melanocytes with high melanin content had high resistance to UVA cytotoxicity and those with low melanin content had low resistance to UVA cytotoxicity.
(17) Melanin biosynthesis is a multistep process with the first step being the conversion of L-tyrosine to L-Dopa catalyzed by the enzyme tyrosinase.
(18) The results showed that there was no correlation between the GABA concentration and the number of melanin-rich nigral cell bodies.
(19) These fluorescent substances were heterogeneous: fluorescence was detected both in main high molecular fraction and in low molecular substances (fluorescence was absent in the initial melanin and its fractions).
(20) Melanocyte cultures have already shed new light on keratinocyte-melanocyte interactions within the epidermal melanin unit by showing that keratinocytes produce "melanotrophic factors" which modulate growth, melanin production, and dendricity of melanocytes.
Melanism
Definition:
(n.) An undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages; -- the opposite of albinism.
(n.) A disease; black jaundice. See Mel/na.
Example Sentences:
(1) In agreement with the InsP3 assays, phorbol ester (TPA) has no effect on melanization, tyrosinase activity or cell proliferation.
(2) These skins preserve the aspects and behaviour of normal human skin but after 1 month they have a heavy melanic hyperpigmentation.
(3) The skin is heavily pigmented with the epidermis, pilary canals, and the outer cell layer of the apocrine duct richly melanized.
(4) A ventrally localized melanization inhibiting factor (MIF) has been suggested to play an important role in the establishment of the dorsal-ventral pigment pattern in Xenopus laevis [Fukuzawa and Ide:Dev.
(5) The processes of melanosome maturation in the late-melanizing goldfish are evident from these observations.
(6) Melanin granules inside keratinocytes were fully melanized.
(7) Melanization in vivo, and in vitro, due to a polyphenoloxidase released by the blood cells, was stimulated by the presence of the fungal cell wall surface.
(8) The endogenous norepinephrine level was increased in eyes with melanic pigments and the exogenous amine uptake was decreased.
(9) The data suggest that host endocrines are involved in the encapsulation and melanization reactions of the larvae, but the nature of the involvement is not known.
(10) These findings suggest that glutathione provides a new situation of interrupted melanogenesis in which melanization cannot proceed despite complete formation of melanosome matrix structure and a lack of inhibition of cellular metabolisms including protein glycosylation.
(11) Conidiogenous cells in both species developed melanin only within the lowermost part of the lateral walls while the other cells of the conidium were uniformly melanized around the circumference of the cell; melanin in these cells being deposited within, at least, half the width of the cell wall.
(12) These changes may indicate the gradual melanization of the lipopigments due to auto-oxidation of catecholamines.
(13) Depending on the dose or period of feeding, symptoms were cuticular melanization, swellings in intersegmental regions, cuticular lesions, rupture of the body wall, and death.
(14) Intracellular melanization, a defense or an immune response in the thoracic muscle cells, was investigated in a refractory strain of Anopheles quadrimaculatus infected with larvae of Brugia malayi.
(15) Difficulty encountered in resolving grains of exposed photographic emulsion in autoradiographs of the densely melanized retinal pigment epithelium was solved by using epi-polarized or incident light microscopy.
(16) Inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase with alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine retarded growth and prevented melanization of limb regenerate in adult newts (Triturus cristatus).
(17) sinensis was 72.3%; the percentage of melanized microfilariae in young Cx.
(18) It is suggested that the surface of the parasite may have inhibitors against enzyme systems causing melanization.
(19) During melanization, oxidation products of tyrosine are generated which are toxic to the cells.
(20) The melanization response of adult female Aedes aegypti (black-eyed Liverpool strain) against intrathoracically inoculated Dirofilaria immitis microfilariae (mff) was assessed with transmission electron microscopy.