This study presents an in vitro experimental method to determine shear properties of the epidermis. Shear tests were performed with a parallel plate rheometer on samples of stratum corneum and the viable epidermis. The method was validated on very thin silicon sheets. Preliminary test were performed to determine the linear viscoelastic range, the effect of normal loading on the sample and the t...

The time course of linoleic acid metabolism in porcine epidermis has been studied in order to better evaluate the lipid transformations that accompany differentiation in this tissue. One day after intradermal injection of [U-14C]linoleic acid, most of the radioactivity in the epidermis was associated with phospholipids, triglycerides, and free fatty acids. Within 3-7 days, a portion of the radi...

In certain animals, in addition to the protoplasmic fibrils of the stratum filamentosum that are present normally in human epidermis, there are well developed fibrils in the cells of the stratum germinativum. These fibrils are present in the human epidermis only under conditions of increased cell activity. These fibrils, that are prominent in the stratum germinativum of human epidermis under co...

In arthropods, the animal body is isolated from the external environment by a protective exoskeleton called the cuticle. The cuticle of young larvae has certainly been the most scrutinized structure in Drosophila and genetic studies of the pattern of cuticular extensions has provided the main source of our comprehension of the control of embryonic development. However, the complex structure of ...

The cyclic AMP level in epidermis of psoriatic patients was reappraised with a highly sensitive radioimmunoassay method in conjunction with an improved skin biopsy technique to avoid any artificial rise of cyclic AMP due to ischemia. Local intradermal injection before biopsy was avoided, since even saline injection caused a clear-cut ischemia effect. The results concur with our previous study: ...

Epidermis is one of the best-studied tissues in mammals that contain types of stem cells. Outstanding works in recent years have shed great light on behaviors of different epidermal stem cell populations in the homeostasis and regeneration of the epidermis as well as hair follicles. Also, the molecular mechanisms governing these stem cells are being elucidated, from genetic to epigenetic levels...

Conformal modulus sensors (CMS) incorporate PZT nanoribbons as mechanical actuators and sensors to achieve reversible conformal contact with the human skin for non-invasive, in vivo measurements of skin modulus. An analytic model presented in this paper yields expressions that connect the sensor output voltage to the Young moduli of the epidermis and dermis, the thickness of the epidermis, as w...

We investigated the alterations of major fatty acid components in epidermis by natural aging and photoaging processes, and by acute ultraviolet (UV) irradiation in human skin. Interestingly, we found that 11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid (ETA), which is one of the omega-3 polyunsaturated acids, was significantly increased in photoaged human epidermis in vivo and also in the acutely UV-irradiated hu...

RHE has the ultimate advantage to grow donor epidermal cells in a serumfree culture environment: after rapidly proliferating preparative keratinocyte cultures have been obtained, the yielded epidermal cells are seeded on inert filter substrates that are lifted to the air-liquid interface in a humidified-air incubator. A fully-defined nutrient medium feeds the basal cells through the filter subs...

The wound epidermis is a transient secretory epithelium that apposes the mesenchymal blastema of a regenerating urodele limb, and is required for regeneration. Previous studies have shown that the positional identity of the blastema is respecified by retinoic acid (RA; Maden, M. (1982) Nature 295, 672-675), that the blastema contains RA (Scadding, S. R. and Maden, M. (1994) Dev. Biol. 162, 6086...