Melatonin is an endogenous hormone derived from tryptophan that is mainly released from the pineal gland in the dark. Melatonin regulates many biological functions such as sleep, circadian rhythm, immunity, and reproduction. Melatonin has a free radical scavenger, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. It scavenges reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and increases antioxidant defenses, thus it prevents tissue damage and blocks transcriptional factors of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Due to its small size and amphiphilic nature, it increases the efficacy of mitochondrial electron transport chain and reduces electron leakage. Melatonin prevents degenerative changes in the central nervous system in models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and reduces free radical damage to DNA which may lead to cancer and many other situations. Consequently, melatonin has beneficial effects including stimulation of antioxidant enzymes, inhibition of lipid peroxidation, and so it contributes to protection from oxidative damages.
Melatonin is uncommonly effective in reducing oxidative stress under a remarkably large number of circumstances. It achieves this action via a variety of means: direct detoxification of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species and indirectly by stimulating antioxidant enzymes while suppressing the activity of pro-oxidant enzymes. In addition to these well-described actions, melatonin also reportedly chelates transition metals, which are involved in the Fenton/Haber–Weiss reactions; in doing so, melatonin reduces the formation of the devastatingly toxic hydroxyl radical resulting in the reduction of oxidative stress. Melatonin's ubiquitous but unequal intracellular distribution, including its high concentrations in mitochondria, likely aid in its capacity to resist oxidative stress and cellular apoptosis.
There is credible evidence to suggest that melatonin should be classified as a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant. Melatonin's capacity to prevent oxidative damage and the associated physiological debilitation is well documented in numerous experimental ischemia/reperfusion (hypoxia/reoxygenation) studies especially in the brain (stroke) and in the heart (heart attack). Melatonin, via its antiradical mechanisms, also reduces the toxicity of noxious prescription drugs and of methamphetamine, a drug of abuse. Experimental findings also indicate that melatonin renders treatment-resistant cancers sensitive to various therapeutic agents and may be useful, due to its multiple antioxidant actions, in especially delaying and perhaps treating a variety of age-related diseases and dehumanizing conditions. Melatonin has been effectively used to combat oxidative stress, inflammation and cellular apoptosis and to restore tissue function in a number of human trials; its efficacy supports its more extensive use in a wider variety of human studies. The uncommonly high-safety profile of melatonin also bolsters this conclusion. It is the current feeling of the authors that, in view of the widely diverse beneficial functions that have been reported for melatonin, these may be merely epiphenomena of the more fundamental, yet-to-be identified basic action(s) of this ancient molecule.
Melanin is the substance in skin that makes it dark. It "competes" for UVB with the substance in the skin that kick-starts the body's vitamin D production. As a result, dark-skinned people tend to require more UVB exposure than light-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. Melanin absorbs harmful UV radiation and therefore protects cells against DNA damage from sun exposure. Populations like Africans in the America's with higher levels of melanin who live at high latitude are most likely to have vitamin D deficiency. When a woman is pregnant the pineal gland makes extra melanin especially significant is the embryonic processes might explain the presence of extra melanin. The pineal gland and the retina in the fetus are formed from the developing diencephalon. Some authors have indicated the presence of a few retinal antigens in the pineal-ocytes.
Thus, the pineal melanin might be a consequence of the relative position, or structure ie. homology amongst these organs. A low content of pigments were found in pinealocytes as well as in the interstitial cells. However, in the extracellular space, pigment granules are abundant and dispersed throughout especially in mid and late pregnancy. This process of melanin transference has already been observed in several mammal species including felines. Metaphysical scientists believe melanin contains the triggering mechanisms for species memory or instinct. Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a highly conserved neuropeptide known to exhibit important functions in the brain. Some studies have reported that MCH improves memory by promoting memory retention. Estrogens and progesterone are known to be able to induce melanin biosynthesis, estradiol and progesterone levels are subject to variations during pregnancy.
Thus, the changes in the amount of pineal melanin seems to indicate a direct relationship between pigment content and gonadal hormone levels during pregnancy, when estradiol and progesterone levels remain elevated for a long time.
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