I wonder if cysteine could be of use in the development of safe skin lightening agents as opposed to the many unsafe methods in use. As can be seen in the following diagram melanogenesis divides after the occurence of dopaquinone into pheomelanogenesis and eumelanogenesis.
Studies like this have shown that the ratio of pheo- and eumelanin can be regulated by the ratio of cysteine and tyrosine in vitro. I wonder if this can be of use in vivo. Finally how important is glutathione in contrast to cysteine for this process ?
