Redheads' melanin may explain skin cancer

DURHAM, N.C., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- North Carolina researchers have found differences in reactions to light in skin pigments that may explain why redheads are more likely to get skin cancer.

John Simon, a chemistry professor at Duke, and his colleagues say that melanin from redheads is chemically different from people with dark hair. The group used a technique developed in Italy five years ago to isolate melanin-containing structures from hair.

Other problems involved in the research were solved by using a tunable laser available at Duke and a photoelectric emission microscope installed at North Carolina State University to study the melanin's reaction to ultraviolet light.

The research team found that it is thermodynamically unfavorable for melanin from the black-haired to activate oxygen. Activating oxygen creates compounds called radicals that put stress on cells, possibly leading to cancer.

Simon reported on his work at the meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington on Sunday.