# Where tanning research wandered: Illumine Med Spa

> Illumine Med Spa follows Melanotan II from a small tanning trial into sexual-function research, animal appetite experiments and reported harms.

**Melanotan II**

A tan seems such a tidy ambition. The research behind it sent me in several directions, and the tidy version now bores me.

## Three volunteers in a tanning study

In a [1996 pilot study of Melanotan II](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8637402/), 3 healthy male volunteers entered a pigmentation experiment. Facial, upper-body and buttock pigmentation increased in 2 of the 3 after 5 low doses, without ultraviolet exposure. The same paper recorded spontaneous erections lasting 1–5 hours and mild nausea. That is quite a lot of biology for a paper about a tan.

I opened it expecting colour to be the interesting result. The erections redirected my curiosity. An effect that might be a nuisance in a pigmentation experiment could become the reason for another experiment altogether. The subsequent [placebo-controlled study in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9679884/) did exactly that: it investigated erections.

Illumine suggests bringing something into view. Here, the visible colour is the beginning of the puzzle. A molecule that escaped its cosmetic description is a subject I can get excited about.

## Melanocortin research

The [historical account of melanocortin therapeutics](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16412534/) describes Melanotan II as a non-selective agonist: it activates multiple members of a receptor family. That breadth helps explain why the research sprawls. Calling it a tanning peptide feels oddly incurious to me once its other effects enter the picture.

The trail reaches [food motivation in male mice](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36155088/), a chemically related [sexual-function candidate called PT-141](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12851303/), and [reports of changing moles and other harms](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28266027/). Those are different branches, with different questions. I enjoy the unexpected connections; enthusiasm for the connections still leaves the risks intact.

## Continue along a branch

The [pigmentation trial](/pigmentation) starts with the actual colour result and the original ambition behind it. The [sexual-function detour](/sexual-function) follows an incidental finding into a deliberately different experiment.

In the [appetite experiments](/appetite), the setting changes to animal research and the question becomes surprisingly specific: eating less, working less for food, or avoiding a taste? The [skin and safety record](/skin-and-safety) returns to the consequences that a pleasing colour can obscure. The [reading list](/references) brings the publications together.

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At Illumine Med Spa I follow published research through the detours of melanocortin biology; this editorial site is no med-spa business and supplies no medical advice.