Suntanning has unexpected positive effects on the brain performance of mice
Dermatologists think that suntanning on a beach or even in a solarium is a sign of stupidity. On the other hand, many people underestimate the need for vitamin D which produced by UV rays hitting our skin.
Sun tanning lying on her stomach
By tuxiduxi (Flickr) CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
And many people in developed countries suffer from a lack of vitamin D, because apart from their holiday, when they do too much suntanning, they are mostly inside and their body doesn’t get the chance to produce it. But recently scientists discovered an unexpected effect of UV rays on brain performance. This time it’s not vitamin D that is responsible, it is a completely different mechanism.
For some time scientists have known that another thing created by skin exposed to UV rays is urokanoic acid. This substance is part of the defense mechanism by which our bodies protect us from the negative effect of UV rays. The urokanoic acid then gets through blood into other organs. But nobody knew that it got into the brain as well.
The team of scientists that discovered this initially didn’t really care about UV exposure. They were studying substances that can be found in neurons and while doing that they discovered urokanoic acid. And they didn’t know where it came from, but they speculated, maybe it could be coming from skin that was exposed to UV rays? So they decided to test it. They shaved lab mice and exposed them to small doses of UV rays. Immediately the urokanoic acid concentration in the brain rose.
It seems that urokanoic acid in the brain is transformed into glutamate. And glutamate can enhance the brain’s performance because it acts as a neurotransmitter. The same effect was also achieved when small doses of urokanoic acid were directly given to the mice. But we should also be careful, at the moment we don’t know whether suntanning has the same effect on human brains. It is quite possible that our brains would react differently or not all.
Sources:
- http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30507-5
- If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other blogs!
- @gaming-trail Where we are your everyday source of gaming-news!
- @kralizec Where I review video games and make commentaries about video games!