Many of us know that ultraviolet rays are damaging for the skin, so as the hottest months of summer approach, a lot of us are stocking up on sunscreen and hoping for a beautiful, radiation-free tan. But what if we could get a darker skin tone without any of the risks? New research investigates.

Share on Pinterest Researchers have found a way to darken human skin artificially, bypassing sunlight and UV exposure.

In the United States, skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that in 2013, almost 72,000 people had melanomas of the skin, with some studies indicating that the number of those affected has increased in the past few years.

Ultraviolet (UV) rays and sun exposure have been suggested to cause skin cancer, and it is commonly accepted that these rays damage the skin.

Particularly in the case of fair-skinned individuals, UV exposure has been shown to significantly increase the risk of skin cancer. This happens because fair-skinned people do not produce eumelanin, which is a protective, dark pigment.

Although products such as sunscreen protect us from many of the sun’s harmful radiations, the American Cancer Society caution that even the best sunscreen is not 100 percent UV-proof, allowing some of the sun’s damaging rays to still get through.

New research, however, may have found a way to pigment the skin without any UV exposure.

Scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, MA, are following up on a previous study that showed the molecular pathways that are involved in tanning, and they managed to promote tanning in mice that do not normally produce eumelanin.

The lead investigator for both studies was Dr. David E. Fisher, chief of the Department of Dermatology at MGH, and the study is published in the journal Cell Reports.