Session 5.1c - Pre-Reading - Melanocyte to Melanoma Flashcards
https://www.youtube.com/embed/aiARvdeXdKM?autoplay=1 From Melanocyte to Melanoma
What are melanocytes?
Cells that produce melanin
What are cells that produce melanin called?
Melanocytes
What is melanin?
A brown, black pigment
What is the brown, black pigment in the skin called?
Melanin
What does melanin determine?
The colour of the skin, hair and eyes in human
What determines the colour of the skin, hair and eyes in humans?
Melanin
What does melanin protect against?
Helps to guard against the damaging effects of the Sun.
What molecule in our body helps to guard against the damaging effects of the Sun?
Melanin
Where are melanocytes found?
In the skin, positioned at the epidermal-dermal junction
What do melanocytes look like?
Appearing as round at cell bodies with long irregular extensions called dendrites
Where are melanocytes round?
At the cell body
What is the shape of the melanocyte cell body?
Round
What are the long irregular extensions on melanocytes?
Dendrites
What is the structure of the dendrites on the melanocyte?
Long irregular extensions off the cell body.
Where in the melanocyte does melanin formation occur?
In the cell body in an intra-cytoplasmic membrane-bound organelle called the melanosome
Melanin formation occurs in the ____ of the melanocyte.
Choose ONE:
- Cell body
- Dendrite
Cell body
What organelle does melanin formation occur in?
Melanosome
What is a melanosome?
An intra-cytoplasmic membrane-bound organelle which produces melanin.
What transports the melanosome to the keratinocyte?
Microtubules
Where do microtubules transport the melanosome to?
The surface of the melanocyte, to a neighbouring keratinocyte
Where does the melanosome go next, after melanin formation?
To a neighbouring keratinocyte.
Where are melanosomes released in the keratinocyte?
Into the matrix of the cytoplasm
Where do melanosomes accumulate, once released into the keratinocyte?
In the supranuclear region of the cytoplasm
Why do melanosomes accumulate in the supranuclear region of the cytoplasm?
Thereby protecting the nuclei of dividing cells from the damaging effects of the Sun
Give two factors which increase the risk of malignant melanoma.
- Heritable predisposition
- Genetic mutations
- Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, e.g. emitted by the Sun