Tópico: A própria pigmentação da pele clara em ruivos pode ser cancerígena (melanoma)

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Unexpected Factor Contributes to Melanoma Risk in Red-Haired, Fair-Skinned Individuals
Oct. 31, 2012 — The well-established elevated risk of melanoma among people with red hair and fair skin may be caused by more than just a lack of natural protection against ultraviolet (UV) radiation. [...]

Since the red hair/fair skin gene controls many cellular activities beyond pigment production, they tested the melanoma risk within a group of red hair/fair skinned mice in which all pigment production had been genetically disabled, a strain called "albino redheads." The researchers observed that complete removal of the red-pigment pathway profoundly protected those mice from melanoma formation, indicating that something about the pigment itself, and not other aspects of being red-haired and fair-skinned, was leading to melanoma.

Suspecting that the red-pigment-associated risk might be chemically related to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) -- unstable oxygen-containing molecules that can damage cells -- the researchers examined skin from both red and albino redhead mice. They discovered elevated levels of a type of DNA damage typically produced by ROS in skin of red mice but not in albino redheads, supporting oxidative damage as the mechanism behind red-pigment-associated melanoma formation.


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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121031141856.htm