What is the difference between normal skin, a freckle, a mole, and melanoma?
In: Biology
Your skin has cells called melanocytes which produce some black/brownish stuff called melanin. This is what gives moles and freckles their color. When melanocytes make melanin, it just transferred to nearby cells that would otherwise be mostly clear (these cells are called keratinocytes and are the most numerous cell in the top layer of your skin, the part you see when you look at your skin). When one of these cells produces a lot of melanin, it spreads to nearby cells, making a freckle. Sometimes, in one area, you may have a lot of melanocytes right next to each other; they’re not producing a lot of melanin, there is just a lot of those cells all next to one another. This is a mole. Sometimes when those cells replicate uncontrollably, we may call it melanoma which refers to a cancer of this specific cell type.
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