Epidermis: Skin Pigments (Nursing)

00:01 The color of our skin or the pigment of our skin is determined by cells that are found in the basal layer or the stratum basale of the epidermis.

00:11 These cells - melanocytes are going to produce a substance known as melanin.

00:16 Melanin has the ability to block damage from UV rays from the sun.

00:22 There are two types of melanin found in the skin You have eumelanin which is the most abundant kind of melanin found in the skin and has a brownish to blackish color, and pheomelanin which is a reddish to brown and is usually found in things like freckles or more reddish skin The melanin is very important and interestingly, everyone has about the same number of melanocytes It is actually the amount of melanin that is produced that determines the color of someone's skin, not number of melanocytes that are present Haemoglobin is another pigment that affects the color of skin.

01:09 Hemoglobin is the red pigment that is found inside of red blood cells.

01:16 A third type of pigment found in the skin that can affect the colour of the skin is carotene.

01:22 This is the same chemical that makes your carrots orange.

01:26 This has a yellow to orange pigment and is actually stored in the most superficial layer or the stratum corneum as well as also being stored in adipose tissue.

01:38 There are some disorders that cause a lack of pigmentation in the skin.

01:43 One such disorder is albinism.

01:45 Albinism is a congenital disorder that is characterized by complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, eyes and hairP This is due to a defect that causes a lack of production of melanin.

02:03 A second disorder that is associated with lack of pigmentation is vitiligo.

02:08 This is a chronic disorder that causes depigmentation of the skin.

02:14 It is thought that it is an autoimmune disease that actually attacks the melanocytes cells themselves therefore do not have the cells that are capable of making melanin.