Pheomelanin and eumelanin in human skin determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography and its relation to in vivo reflectance measurements

Background/purpose: Clinical experience has shown that red haired, fair‐skinned people have an increased frequency of skin cancer and in addition a relatively high content of pheomelanin and low content of eumelanin in their skin. Of these, eumelanin is presumed photoprotective, and pheomelanin phototoxic. Thus, a fast, easy, and non‐invasive method for determining skin content of eumelanin and pheomelanin was sought.

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