Welcome to Culture Clinic, MedPage Today's collaboration with Northwell Health to offer a healthcare professional's take on the latest viral medical topics.
An unregulated injectable peptide popping up across social media promises a sunless tan, but the product -- melanotan II, also known as the "Barbie peptide" -- carries risks, dermatologists said.
"People want to use this peptide to basically get a tan without getting UV [ultraviolet] exposure. So what it does is, it tells the cell to produce pigment," explained Raman Madan, MD, chief of dermatology at Northwell Health's Glen Cove Hospital in New York.
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as "messengers to the body," Madan told MedPage Today. "You can build peptides to seek out certain cell receptors."
In the case of melanotan II, this synthetic peptide mimics a hormone that is already present in the body -- alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) -- which binds to the melanin receptors responsible for pigmentation of the skin.
