Abstract
Pigmentation of the skin is determined at a cellular level. Although there may be some variation in the number of melanocytes between races, this difference is not striking. There are approximately 2000 epidermal melanocytes per square millimeter on the head and forearm and 1000 epidermal melanocytes per square millimeter on the rest of the body. These differences are present at birth [1]; thus, all persons have the same total number of melanocytes. It is the distribution of melanosomes in the keratinocytes that correlates with skin color. In white skin, melanosomes are small and aggregated in complexes. In black skin, there are larger melanosomes, which are singly distributed within keratinocytes [2].
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(2007). Melanocytic Lesions in Darker Racial Ethnic Groups. In: Soyer, H., Argenziano, G., Hofmann-Wellenhof, R., Johr, R. (eds) Color Atlas of Melanocytic Lesions of the Skin. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-35106-1_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-35106-1_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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