Influence of variation in eumelanin content on absorbance spectra of liquid skin-like phantoms.

The attenuation behavior of two different types of skin-like phantoms representing the range of Fitzpatrick skin Types I-VI was investigated and compared with real human skin. Intralipid (IL) and Pheroid(™) artificial lipid membrane vesicles, respectively, were added to synthetic eumelanin concentrations ranging from 0.0044 to 0.13mgmL(-1) to produce skin-like phantoms. Spectrophotometric absorbance and transmittance measurements were performed. Results indicated some of the nonmonotonic trends observed in real human skin, albeit shifted more toward the visible wavelength range. There exists, however, an underlying difference in interaction between the melanin and the Pheroid(™) and IL skin-like phantoms.