Biomaterial Database

[Melanosomes, melanocytes and keratinocytes in the human epidermis in incontinentia pigmenti]. 1990

G Martinez, and M L Carnazza Marraro, and C Caltabiano

Istituto di Anatomia Umana, Università di Catania.

A functioning epidermal melanin unit implies a melanocyte capable of transferring melanosomes to keratinocytes; this requires not only melanocytes with adequate dendrites but also "receptive" keratinocytes. Skin with incontinentia pigmenti was examined by electron microscopy. Premelanosomes were occasionally found within keratinocytes and deposits of extracellular granular material that came from vacuolar degeneration of keratinocytes adjacent to melanocytes.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007184	Incontinentia Pigmenti	A genodermatosis occurring mostly in females and characterized by skin changes in three phases - vesiculobullous, verrucous papillomatous, and macular melanodermic. Hyperpigmentation is bizarre and irregular. Sixty percent of patients have abnormalities of eyes, teeth, central nervous system, and skin appendages.	Bloch-Sulzberger Syndrome,Bloch-Siemens Syndrome,Bloch-Siemens-Sulzberger Syndrome,Bloch Sulzberger Syndrome,Syndrome, Bloch-Sulzberger
D008544	Melanocytes	Mammalian pigment cells that produce MELANINS, pigments found mainly in the EPIDERMIS, but also in the eyes and the hair, by a process called melanogenesis. Coloration can be altered by the number of melanocytes or the amount of pigment produced and stored in the organelles called MELANOSOMES. The large non-mammalian melanin-containing cells are called MELANOPHORES.	Melanocyte
D008854	Microscopy, Electron	Microscopy using an electron beam, instead of light, to visualize the sample, thereby allowing much greater magnification. The interactions of ELECTRONS with specimens are used to provide information about the fine structure of that specimen. In TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY the reactions of the electrons that are transmitted through the specimen are imaged. In SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY an electron beam falls at a non-normal angle on the specimen and the image is derived from the reactions occurring above the plane of the specimen.	Electron Microscopy
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012867	Skin	The outer covering of the body that protects it from the environment. It is composed of the DERMIS and the EPIDERMIS.
D014617	Vacuoles	Any spaces or cavities within a cell. They may function in digestion, storage, secretion, or excretion.	Vacuole
D015603	Keratinocytes	Epidermal cells which synthesize keratin and undergo characteristic changes as they move upward from the basal layers of the epidermis to the cornified (horny) layer of the skin. Successive stages of differentiation of the keratinocytes forming the epidermal layers are basal cell, spinous or prickle cell, and the granular cell.	Keratinocyte