When the sun hits us, our skin cells synthesize a dark pigment, melanin , which absorbs dangerous ultraviolet radiation. That’s why we go brown : it is a defense mechanism. But, what if we tanned without having to expose ourselves to the sun’s rays ? Well, regardless of whether we like more or less how it looks from the aesthetic point of view, we would be better protected.
Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (in the USA) have succeeded, as they have just announced in the journal Cell Reports . These are small molecules, based on a substance called forskolin , that stimulate skin pigmentation without the harmful action of UV radiation.
It had previously been made to work with laboratory mice, but human skin tissue resisted until the team led by dermatologist David Fisher collaborated with that of chemist Nathanael Gray. The jointly created compounds now act on a different type of enzyme (induced salt kinase or SIK) and manage to break resistance and penetrate human skin samples. Its lower molecular weight and greater ability to cross lipids darken the skin for days . The natural tone recovers in one or two weeks and, in addition, the cells on the surface are shed, just as it happens when we tan in the sun naturally.
For now, researchers are still evaluating the efficacy of their new compound in animals, a step prior to conducting toxicity tests in humans .
