This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Warwick L. Morison, MD

Arch Dermatol. 1985;121(9):1160-1163.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

An informal survey of my colleagues revealed that most dermatologists believe the primary function of melanin in humans is to act as a sunscreen to protect us from ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight; the leading textbooks of dermatology support this notion. Recently, while reading materials outside of our specialty, I was surprised to find that dermatologists might be alone in the scientific community in their acceptance of this view. Furthermore, the evidence for melanin having developed to serve other functions appeared to be as strong or stronger than the evidence that it is primarily a sunscreen. Interestingly, a decade or so ago, there was considerable discussion about this subject among dermatologists who had an interest in photobiology,^1,2 but, recently, we appear to have accepted as dogma that melanin is a sunscreen. Dogma, in any discipline, should be examined periodically. With many recent advances in the biology of melanin, it . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Dermatology, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication March 19, 1985.

Reprint requests to the Department of Dermatology, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 600 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205 (Dr Morison).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?