Please don’t laugh, the melanin production mechanism involved in this question has indeed caused a lot of controversy in academic circles.
The approximate conclusion is:
Don’t run near the full moon and just after the full moon, this time will stimulate the secretion of melanin, but the principle is not because the moon is brighter, but because of the tidal cycle. As a time-killer, let me start from the beginning:
As we all know, the production of melanin comes from the synthesis of melanocytes in the body.
Traditional studies on the mechanism of melanin formation in melanocytes show that the formation of melanin is mainly caused by four enzymes in melanocytes: tyrosinase, dopa isomerase (TRP -2), peroxidase, 5, 6-DHI-2-carboxylic acid, DHICA oxidase (TRP-1) and other enzymes alone or synergistically.
But by Sigel & Tolis (1994), found that although the mechanism of melanin formation is like this, the real control mechanism of the internal environment is through the synthesis of inhibitors of related enzymes to achieve inhibition.
In other words, the actual process is like this: In our body, inhibitors of related enzymes are continuously synthesized, thereby inhibiting the synthesis of melanin. When the synthesis inhibitor is insufficient, melanin synthase will act and turn black. Sun exposure to darken the skin does not directly act on melanin synthase, but inhibits the synthesis of melanin synthase inhibitors. (Slightly winding)
For example, there are several synthetic inhibitors of tyrosinase: (Of course, inhibitors are divided into destructive and non-destructive types. I will not introduce the difference in detail here, but they can be inhibited)
(The following is a destructive inhibitor)
(The following is a non-destructive inhibitor)
The main reason why sun exposure makes the skin darker is mainly that the long wave of ultraviolet light inhibits the synthesis of hydroxyphenylglycines, cysteaminylphenols, and phloretin. Among synthetic inhibitors, hydroxyphenylglycines and phloretin have the greatest inhibitory effect on tyrosinase, which is the mechanism of ultraviolet tanning.
Then Drive began to study: Will moonlight cause similar damage? Well, the subject you are not fighting alone. Then he began to research. However, he found that moonlight could not cause similar damage. However, he also discovered that the enzyme that synthesizes melanin is also dopachrome isomerase (which we mentioned at the beginning), but in the beginning, scientists did not pay attention to the role of this enzyme.
The inhibitors of dopachrome isomerase are as follows:
Drige found that the kojic acid in the dopachrome isomerase inhibitor does severely decrease its secretion when the moonlight is bright.
But noticed that at that time, Driger did not explain the mechanism of the influence of moonlight brightness on kojic acid.
He just made two control groups: one group had a moonlight intensity of 2*10³ Lux (a unit of brightness), and the other group had 1.2*10³ Lux. He found that the latter group of samples had significantly higher secretion values of kojic acid. Generic questioned this point: Moonlight intensity has a serious positive correlation with the lunar cycle. In other words, it may be the lunar cycle that really affects the secretion of kojic acid.
But how does the lunar cycle affect it?
The research of Gengeria (1996) showed that:
The formation of melanin is not only the intracellular biochemical result of melanocytes, but also the adjacent keratinocytes (about 36 keratinocytes around each melanocyte), cellulose cells, phagocytes, and endothelin produced by keratinocytes, etc. It also has a great influence on its formation.
Gengeria also came to the conclusion that when the Earth’s lunar longitude is less than 1/12pi, the activity of cellulosic cells increases significantly.
In other words, the lunar tides will not have an impact on the melanocytes themselves but will have an important impact on the activity of cellulosic cells, and the activity of cellulosic cells is inhibited the most during the synodic period. But the activity of cellulosic cells can inhibit the activity of melanocytes.
In summary, do not run near the full moon and just after the full moon. This time it will stimulate the secretion of melanin, but the principle is not because the moonlight is brighter, but because of the tidal cycle. The effect of increased melanin secretion near the full moon is not due to the promotion of the synthesis of melanin synthase or its inhibitors, but indirectly promotes the activity of melanocytes by inhibiting the activity of cellulosic cells.
So far, the problem is solved perfectly.