SO TELL ME WHAT'S UNDER MY SKIN!

INTRODUCTION TO THE SKIN!
What It Looks Like
The skin is the largest organ in the body.
It is also the only organ in the human body which is constantly exposed to the external environment.
The skin is a waterproof, flexible, tough protective covering for the body surface.
The skin surface is smooth, punctuated only with hair and pores for sweat.
It is divided into three layers: epidermis (the outer layer), dermis (the middle layer), and fats (the innermost layer).

What It Does
Without the skin, life on earth is near impossible.
Bones, muscles and organs would be all over the place. The Skin is the one that holds everything together.
The skin provides a barrier to the environment, protects you from ultraviolet light, regulates bodily temperature, senses touch, provides insulation and helps to store calories.
However the skin can become infected with bacteria, viruses and fungi, and can be irritated by chemicals or other substances it is in contact with as well.

BLOG ENTRIES ON THE SKIN

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Want to know why different people have different skin colour?? Read this post!

Your skin color is a function of the size, number and the distribution and not the density of melanin cells.

In fact, the number of melanin cells is standard in every human being. However, melanin cells of darker tones of skin have thicker, longer and highly branched dendrites, unlike skin with lighter tones. The differences in varying skin pigmentation of the races depend on the quantity of melanin pigments produced and on the distribution and the deposition of the pigments throughout the skin’s top layer, the epidermis.

Melanin pigment is highly important in free radicals absorption generated within the cytoplasm. Thus, it shields us from harmful ionizing radiation, including the UV (Ultra-violet) light. Thus, melanin protects the skin against painful and dangerous sun burns. Since people with lighter tones of skin (eg: Caucasians) have less Melanin compared to others, they are more prone to sun burns and skin diseases. The essential enzyme in melanin synthesis tyrosinase.

Tyrosinase is multifunctional, glycosylated, copper-containing oxidase with a molecular weight of approximately 60 to 70 kDa. It is usually found in melanin cells. Tyrosinase is produced in melanosomal ribosome's which is on the rough ER (endoplasmic reticulum). After synthesis, tyrosinase is glycosylated within the Golgi Apparatus in cells, then delivered to melanosomes by vesicles.

Tyrosinase is the rate-limiting enzyme for melanin synthesis (production of melanin), and defection of this enzyme ultimately leads to the albinism in humans.

It is also likely that racial differences in human color may be due to different tyrosinase activity in the melanin cells from varying skin types. Melanin cells derived from darker tones of skin have up to tyrosinase activity which is ten times more intense than do melanin cells in lighter tones of skin.

Interesting fact!

Strict genetic control of migration patterns of melanin cells lead to interesting patterns when distribution in the skin is not uniform, as can be seen in zebras
and giraffes.

Hope you learnt something today!

Sinhui (:

i thought about my skin
at 9:51 AM