Melatonin as a major skin protectant: from free radical scavenging to DNA damage repair

Melatonin, one of the evolutionarily most ancient, highly conserved and most pleiotropic hormones still operative in man, couples complex tissue functions to defined changes in the environment. Showing photoperiod-associated changes in its activity levels in mammals, melatonin regulates, chronobiological and reproductive systems, coat phenotype and mammary gland functions. However, this chief secretory product of the pineal gland is now recognized to also exert numerous additional functions which range from free radical scavenging and DNA repair via immunomodulation, body weight control and the promotion of wound healing to the coupling of environmental cues to circadian clock gene expression and the modulation of secondary endocrine signalling (e.g. prolactin release, oestrogen receptor-mediated signalling). Some of these activities are mediated by high-affinity membrane (MT1, MT2) or specific cytosolic (MT3/NQO2) and nuclear hormone receptors (ROR alpha), while others reflect receptor-independent antioxidant activities of melatonin. Recently, it was shown that mammalian (including human) skin and hair follicles are not only melatonin targets, but also sites of extrapineal melatonin synthesis. Therefore, we provide here an update of the relevant cutaneous effects and mechanisms of melatonin, portray melatonin as a major skin protectant and sketch how its multi-facetted functions may impact on skin biology and pathology. This is illustrated by focussing on recent findings on the role of melatonin in photodermatology and hair follicle biology. After listing a number of key open questions, we conclude by defining particularly important, clinically relevant perspectives for how melatonin may become therapeutically exploitable in cutaneous medicine.