Sh. Kidson et al., AN ULTRASTRUCTURAL-STUDY OF MELANOCYTES AND MELANOSOMES IN THE SKIN AND HAIR BULBS OF RUFOUS ALBINOS, Pigment cell research, 6(4), 1993, pp. 209-214
We have examined hair bulb and skin melanocytes of rufous albinos from
Southern Africa to further characterize this form of albinism. In the
skin melanocytes we find both eumelanosomes and pheomelanosomes at va
rious stages of melanization and, in addition, there appeared to be ma
ny aberrant incompletely melanized melanosomes. On average, rufous mel
anosomes are 30% smaller than normal black skin melanosomes. In the ke
ratinocytes, the melanosomes are packaged into distinct aggregations,
whereas in normal black skin, they occur singly. We suggest that the r
eddish skin color of these albinos is a consequence of an increase in
the pheomelanin synthesis resulting in a raised pheomelanin/eumelanin
ratio and that the aggregation of melanosomes results in a skin color
slightly lighter than normal. In hair bulb melanocytes, only eumelanos
omes were seen and these were mostly incompletely melanized. These fin
dings correlate with our visual observations that the hair color of So
uthern African albinos is very pale (light brown or ginger). Based on
our observations, we speculate on the possible cause of rufous albinis
m.