Yes / Melanin is the predominant pigment responsible for skin colour, and is synthesized by the
melanocyte in the basal layer of the epidermis and then transferred to surrounding keratinocytes.
Despite its optical properties, melanin is barely detectable in unstained sections of human skin.
However, identification and localization of melanin is of importance for the study of skin
pigmentation in health and disease. Current methods for the histologic quantification of melanin are
suboptimal, and are associated with significant risk of misinterpretation. The aim of this study was
to re-assess the existing literature, and to develop a more effective histological method of melanin
quantification in human skin.
Moreover, we confirm that Warthin-Starry (WS) stain provides a much more sensitive and more
specific melanin detection method than the common-place Fontana-Masson (FM) stain. For
example, WS staining sensitivity allowed the visualization of melanin even in very pale Caucasian
skin that was missed by FM or Von Kossa (VK) stains. From our re-assessment of the histologyrelated
literature we conclude that so-called ‘melanin dust’ is most likely an artefact of discoloration
due to non-specific silver deposition in the stratum corneum. Unlike FM and VK, WS was not
associated with this non-specific stratum corneum darkening, misinterpreted previously as
‘degraded’ or so-called ‘dust’ melanin. Finally, WS melanin particle counts were largely similar to
manual counts by transmission electron microscopy, in contrast to both FM and VK. Together these
findings allow us to propose a new histology/Image J-informed method for the accurate and precise
quantification of epidermal melanin in skin.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/8004 |
| Date | 29 June 2016 |
| Creators | Joly-Tonetti, Nicolas, Wibawa, J.I.D., Bell, M., Tobin, Desmond J. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted Manuscript |
| Rights | © 2016 Wiley and Sons. This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Joly-Tonetti N, Wibawa JID, Bell M and Tobin DJ (2016) Melanin fate in the human epidermis: a re-assessment of how best to detect and analyze histologically. Experimental Dermatology. Article in Press, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/exd.13016. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. |
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