Cells with long branching fibers that protect the skin from ultra-violet radiation and determine skin, eye, and hair color

cells that make the skin pigment melanin. Melanin is made in small granules, called melanosomes, within the melanocyte. Melanin is then transported to cells of the outer skin (keratinocytes), where the melanin is seen as "color" of the skin.

The pigment-producing cells in the skin that make up moles and freckles, create pigment during tanning, and become malignant in melanoma.

Cells where melanin is produced.

Cells in upper layer of skin responsible for pigment (melanin) production. Back to glossary index

Epidermal dendritic pigment cells which control long-term morphological color changes by alteration in their number or in the amount of pigment they produce and store in the pigment containing organelles called melanosomes.

Special cells in the skin and the eye that produce melanin or pigment. Clusters of melanocytes often appear on the skin as moles. melanin: The pigment produced by the body that gives skin and irises (the colored portion of the eye) their color. Melanin also helps protect the skin from the sun's damaging rays. See also: Melanoma

Pigment-producing cells in the skin, hair and eyes that determine their color. The pigment is called melanin and comes in two colors: eumelanin, which is black, and pheomelanin, which is red. The amount of these two melanins determines skin, hair and eye color. In the eye, the absence of melanin makes blue eyes.

The cells in the inner layer of the epidermis that produce melanin.

mel'anosit, Pigment cell of the skin; melanodendrocyte; a cell located at the dermoepedermal junction having branching processes by means of which melanosomes are transferred to epidermal cells, resulting in pigmentation.

Cells in the basal layer of the epidermis that produce the pigment melanin in their melanosomes.

Cells that produce a pigment called melanin. Melanocytes are normally present in the skin. They are also present in the eye and the nervous system. Amount of melanin present in the melanocytes gives the varying degrees of skin coloration.

the specialized epidermal cells that produce melanin, the pigment responsible for the amount of color in one's skin, moles, or freckles (i.e. darker =more melanin and lighter =less melanin).

pigment cell of the skin contained in the basal cell layer of the epidermis. Produce melanin.

Cells lodged in the basal layer which produces melanin, responsible for the skin's pigmentation. Melanocytes have ramifications (dendrites) which enable keratinocytes to capture the melanin in order to protect their nucleus from UV rays (melanin forms like a parasol over the nucleus). The melanin will gradually reach all the layers of the living epidermis as and when cells begin to migrate.

These cells produce melanosomes, which produce melanin, which bears pigment in skin.

pigment cells in which melanoma usually starts.

Special skin cells that produce the skin pigment melanin. Melanocytes are present in the epidermis.

A pigment producing cell found in the skin, hair and eyes that gives them their color.

An epidermal cell capable of synthesizing melanin.

Melanin-producing cells found in the epidermis.

Cells of the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, that produce the skin pigment melanin.

Skin cells that produce a pigment called melanin; these cells can become cancerous and change into malignant melanoma

cells present in the epidermis that produce melanin (skin pigment).

are pigment producing cells in the skin. These contain the pigment granules called melanin.

Pigment cells normally found in the basal layer of the epidermis. They produce a protein called melanin that protects the skin from damage due to ultraviolet radiation. Benign melanocytic tumours are often called moles. Cancerous melanocytic tumours are called malignant melanoma.

Pigment-producing cells located in the epidermis.

Cells in the skin that produce and contain the pigment called melanin.