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Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation

The presence of melanocytes in the oral epithelium is a well-established fact, but their physiological functions are not well defined. Melanin provides protection from environmental stressors such as ultraviolet radiation and reactive oxygen species; and melanocytes function as stress-sensors having...

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Autores principales: Feller, Liviu, Masilana, Aubrey, Khammissa, Razia AG, Altini, Mario, Jadwat, Yusuf, Lemmer, Johan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24661309
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-160X-10-8
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author Feller, Liviu
Masilana, Aubrey
Khammissa, Razia AG
Altini, Mario
Jadwat, Yusuf
Lemmer, Johan
author_facet Feller, Liviu
Masilana, Aubrey
Khammissa, Razia AG
Altini, Mario
Jadwat, Yusuf
Lemmer, Johan
author_sort Feller, Liviu
collection PubMed
description The presence of melanocytes in the oral epithelium is a well-established fact, but their physiological functions are not well defined. Melanin provides protection from environmental stressors such as ultraviolet radiation and reactive oxygen species; and melanocytes function as stress-sensors having the capacity both to react to and to produce a variety of microenvironmental cytokines and growth factors, modulating immune, inflammatory and antibacterial responses. Melanocytes also act as neuroendocrine cells producing local neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, catecholamines and opioids, and hormones of the melanocortin system such as proopiomelanocortin, adrenocorticotropic hormone and α-melanocyte stimulating hormone, that participate in intracellular and in intercellular signalling pathways, thus contributing to tissue homeostasis. There is a wide range of normal variation in melanin pigmentation of the oral mucosa. In general, darker skinned persons more frequently have oral melanin pigmentation than light-skinned persons. Variations in oral physiological pigmentation are genetically determined unless associated with some underlying disease. In this article, we discuss some aspects of the biophysiology of oral melanocytes, of the functions of melanin, and of physiological oral pigmentation.
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spelling pubmed-39943272014-04-23 Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation Feller, Liviu Masilana, Aubrey Khammissa, Razia AG Altini, Mario Jadwat, Yusuf Lemmer, Johan Head Face Med Review The presence of melanocytes in the oral epithelium is a well-established fact, but their physiological functions are not well defined. Melanin provides protection from environmental stressors such as ultraviolet radiation and reactive oxygen species; and melanocytes function as stress-sensors having the capacity both to react to and to produce a variety of microenvironmental cytokines and growth factors, modulating immune, inflammatory and antibacterial responses. Melanocytes also act as neuroendocrine cells producing local neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, catecholamines and opioids, and hormones of the melanocortin system such as proopiomelanocortin, adrenocorticotropic hormone and α-melanocyte stimulating hormone, that participate in intracellular and in intercellular signalling pathways, thus contributing to tissue homeostasis. There is a wide range of normal variation in melanin pigmentation of the oral mucosa. In general, darker skinned persons more frequently have oral melanin pigmentation than light-skinned persons. Variations in oral physiological pigmentation are genetically determined unless associated with some underlying disease. In this article, we discuss some aspects of the biophysiology of oral melanocytes, of the functions of melanin, and of physiological oral pigmentation. BioMed Central 2014-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3994327/ /pubmed/24661309 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-160X-10-8 Text en Copyright © 2014 Feller et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Review
Feller, Liviu
Masilana, Aubrey
Khammissa, Razia AG
Altini, Mario
Jadwat, Yusuf
Lemmer, Johan
Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title_full Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title_fullStr Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title_full_unstemmed Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title_short Melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
title_sort melanin: the biophysiology of oral melanocytes and physiological oral pigmentation
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24661309
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-160X-10-8
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