Logo image
Support and challenges to the melanosomal casing model based on nanoscale distribution of metals within iris melanosomes detected by X-ray fluorescence analysis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Support and challenges to the melanosomal casing model based on nanoscale distribution of metals within iris melanosomes detected by X-ray fluorescence analysis

Thomas Gorniak, Tamás Haraszti, Heikki Suhonen, Yang Yang, Adam Hedberg-Buenz, Demelza Koehn, Ruth Heine, Michael Grunze, Axel Rosenhahn and Michael G Anderson
Pigment cell and melanoma research, Vol.27(5), pp.831-834
09/2014
DOI: 10.1111/pcmr.12278
PMCID: PMC4150745
PMID: 24903463
url
http://doi.org/10.1111/pcmr.12278View
Open Access

Abstract

Melanin within melanosomes exists as eumelanin or pheomelanin. Distributions of these melanins have been studied extensively within tissues, but less often within individual melanosomes. Here, we apply X-ray fluorescence analysis with synchrotron radiation to survey the nanoscale distribution of metals within purified melanosomes of mice. The study allows a discovery-based characterization of melanosomal metals, and, because Cu is specifically associated with eumelanin, a hypothesis-based test of the “casing model” predicting that melanosomes contain a pheomelanin core surrounded by a eumelanin shell. Analysis of Cu, Ca, and Zn shows variable concentrations and distributions, with Ca/Zn highly correlated, and at least three discrete patterns for the distribution of Cu vs. Ca/Zn in different melanosomes – including one with a Cu-rich shell surrounding a Ca/Zn-rich core. Thus, the results support predictions of the casing model, but also suggest that in at least some tissues and genetic contexts, other arrangements of melanin may co-exist.
metal X-ray fluorescence analysis pheomelanin Melanosome synchrotron-based imaging eumelanin

Details

Logo image