Drug-induced and genetic hypermelanism: effects on pigment cell differentiation

Allopurinol, a drug that inhibits the enzyme xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), is known to cause hypermelanism in the axolotl. The hypermelanistic condition that results from allopurinol treatment is similar in most respects to the phenotype that results from the action of the melanoid (m) gene in axolotls. On the basis of structural and biochemical studies, it now seems clear that genetic and drug-induced hypermelanism are the same in the following ways. 1) Both types of melanism result in the production of more than normal amounts of melanin and more melanin-containing cells (melanophores). 2) In both cases the amount of pteridine-associated yellow pigment declines during development, and this is associated directly with fine structural changes that occur within the pigment organelles (pterinosomes) of yellow pigment cells (xanthophores). 3) In both cases the hypermelanistic condition results in the suppression of reflecting pigment cell (iridophore) differentiation. 4) Both conditions have now been linked directly to depressed levels of XDH activity. Thus both genetic and drug-induced hypermelanism result in alterations in the normal differentiation of all three pigment cell types and the subsequent disruption of normal pigment pattern formation. The possible significance of these findings with regard to factors known or suspected to direct the migration and/or differentiation of neural crest-derived pigment cells is discussed.