Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2016 Jul 15;17(7):1144. doi: 10.3390/ijms17071144

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Eumelanin and pheomelanin are synthesized within melanosomes of melanocytes by a series of reactions that are catalyzed by specific melanogenic enzymes (black). Production of these enzymes is driven by the MITF transcription factor whose activity is regulated by a number of signaling pathways including PKC (brown), cAMP (blue), MEK (purple), and WNT (orange). These signaling pathways are activated upstream by receptors such as KIT (ligand: SCF) and MC1R (ligands: α-MSH, ACTH and ASP). The MITF transcription factor drives the expression of a number of genes including SOX10 and PAX3. Protein kinase C (PKC); cyclic AMP (cAMP); MAPK/ERK Kinase (MEK); Wingless-related integration site (WNT); Stem Cell Factor (SCF); Melanocyte-specific melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R); α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH); adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH); agonist stimulating protein (ASP).