Speculations on the molecular structure of eumelanin

Eumelanin is the polymeric black pigment commonly found in hair and skin. Its chemical intractability, to all but vigorous oxidizing agents, has hindered satisfactory understanding of its molecular structure. It is well-established that the immediate precursor to polymerization, indole-5,6-quinone (IQ), is biosynthesized from the amino acid tyrosine. Current views are that the polymer consists of single bond connections between random indole and degraded indole units. In this paper, an alternative chemical scheme for the polymerization of IQ is proposed based upon the original suggestion by Horner in 1949 that a Diels-Alder (D-A) reaction might be involved. The proposed basic chemical scheme for eumelanin formation is that D-A addition occurs specifically between the 2- and 3-positions of one IQ molecule and the 7- and 4- positions respectively of a second IQ molecule, that the ensuing diketo bridge is oxidized to carboxyl groups and that, by decarboxylation and aromatization, a fused indole dimer is produced. It is envisaged that, by further D-A addition of more IQ molecules, oligomers of greater molecular mass are produced. Calculations based on published bond lengths and angles for the indole nucleus show that oligomeric units containing a total of up to 11 fused indoles could be packed into a flat circular disc of 20 A diameter. The discs of the extensively conjugated polymer are envisaged to be stacked above each other by pi-pi interaction and with a spacing of 3.4 A to produce cylindrical units, the mass density of which is calculated to be 1.54 gm cm(-3); approximating with actual physical measurements. The size and shape of the predicted cylinders are in concordance with those observed in atomic force microscope investigations of eumelanin proto-particles. The model is also in agreement with published experimental data that 2/3rds of the carbon dioxide liberated during eumelanin formation derives from positions 5- and 6- of the IQ molecule.