Solar radiation and induction of DNA damages, mutations and skin cancers

An understanding of the effects of sunlight on human skin begins with the effects on DNA and extends to cells, animals and humans. The major DNA photoproducts arising from UVB (280-320 nm) exposures are cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. If unrepaired, they may kill or mutate cells and result in basal and squamous cell carcinomas. Although UVA (320-400 nm) and visible wavelengths are poorly absorbed by DNA, the existing data indicate clearly that exposures to these wavelengths are responsible, in an animal model, for ~95 % of the incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). Six lines of evidence, to be discussed in detail, support the photosensitizing role of melanin in the induction of this cancer. They are: (1) Melanomas induced in backcross hybrids of small tropical fish of the genus Xiphophorus, exposed to wavelengths from 302-547 nm, indicate that ~95% of the cancers induced by exposure to sunlight would arise from UVA + visible wavelengths; (2) The action spectrum for inducing melanin-photosensitized oxidant production is very similar to the spectrum for inducing melanoma; (3) Albino whites and blacks, although very sensitive to sunburn and the sunlight induction of non-CMM, have very low incidences of CMM; (4) The incidence of CMM as a function of latitude is very similar to that of UVA, but not UVB; (5) Use of UVA-exposing sun-tanning parlors by the young increases the incidence rate of CMM and (6) Major mutations observed in CMM are not UVB-induced.