WEDNESDAY, Sept. 20 (HealthDay News) -- The chemical forskolin may be able to rescue tanning in fair-skinned individuals and possibly protect them from ultraviolet light-induced skin damage, according to the results of a mouse study reported in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature.
Fair-skinned individuals tend to have defects in the melanocyte stimulating hormone signaling pathway that prevent them from tanning, leaving them highly susceptible to skin cancer. Using mice, David E. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues found that the defective part of the pathway can be bypassed by treatment with a chemical called forskolin.
The researchers show that UV-induced pigmentation is absent in mice deficient in the melanocortin-1 receptor, often defective in fair-skinned people. However, pigmentation can be restored in these mice by topical treatment with a cream containing forskolin. The pigmentation that developed was able to protect mice highly susceptible to UV light from DNA damage and tumorigenesis.
Forskolin induces the downstream signaling pathways that intact melanocortin-1 receptors induce in dark-skinned individuals. "These studies suggest that a drug-induced 'rescue' of the tanning mechanism may correspondingly rescue at least some aspect of skin cancer protection," Fisher said in a prepared statement. "Such sunless tanning may also dissuade sun-seeking behaviors, which undoubtedly contribute significantly to high skin cancer incidence."
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