@Article{Maitra2025,
journal="Dermatology Review/Przegląd Dermatologiczny",
issn="0033-2526",
volume="112",
number="4",
year="2025",
title="Melanin and Vitamin D: Unravelling the Mechanism and
Coalition of Two Archaic Biomolecules in Human Evolution and Health",
abstract="Melanin and vitamin D share a unique relationship. Human skin pigmentation has changed throughout the course of evolution to provide protection from intense ultraviolet radiation (UVR) while still allowing for cutaneous vitamin D synthesis. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining human health, and its synthesis occurs in the skin upon exposure to ultraviolet B radiation. Moreover, when isolated human populations migrated to radically different climatic environments with exceptionally low or high UVB exposure, pigmentation phenotypes evolved repeatedly as a result of distinct genetic processes. Rapid changes in migratory patterns and lifestyle factors further contributed to variations in human skin pigmentation and, together with environmental influences, led to vitamin D deficiency. Against this backdrop, the present review aims to untangle the intertwined roles that two ancient biomolecules, melanin and vitamin D, have played in human evolution and health.",
author="Maitra, Sumit
and Bose, Arkopala
and Chatterjee, Diptendu
and Bandyopadhyay, Arup",
pages="235--242",
doi="10.5114/dr.2025.155989",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5114/dr.2025.155989"
}