Question

Why are melanin and keratin important?

Answer 1

Importance of Melanin:

• Melanin is a pigment which gives color to the skin, hair and eyes of human. The fact is that, dark-skinned people have more melanin and light-skinned people have less melanin.
• Melanin is important for humans as it gives protection to our skin from the sun rays. It protects our skin from the damaged caused by the sun.
• It also prevents skin cancers like melanoma. When our skin is exposed to more sunlight, it becomes more darker, leading to development of moles.
• Deficiency of melanin can cause a disorder called 'vitiligo' (loss of melanin pigment).
• So, the main purpose of melanin is to absorb to protect our skin from the UV rays of sunlight.

Importance of keratin:

• Keratin is a protein which protects our hair, nails and the outer layer of skin.
• It is an important protein in the epidemic layer.
• Its function is to form a protective layer on the outside of our skin by adhering cells to each other.
• Keratin helps in protecting epithelial cells from damage.
• It also helps in growing our hair from the follicles.
• Deficiency of keratin causes fragility of our cells.

Simply we can conclude that, Melanin is important for our skin and Keratin is important for our hair.

Thank you!