Effects of electromagnetic fields on the skin of albino rats: a histological study

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the histological changes that might result from the long-term exposure to static and time varying electromagnetic fields [EM] of extremely low frequency on the skin of albino rats. This work was carried out on 15 adult male albino rats divided into three equal groups: Group I served as a normal control, group II was exposed to 10 mT static electromagnetic field two hours/day for one month and group III was exposed to 10 mT time varying electromagnetic field of extremely low frequency [50 Hz] for two hours/day for one month. By the end of the experiment, the animals were sacrificed by decapitation and specimens from the skin of each rat were taken and processed for electron microscopic and light microscopic examination by routine H and E, Gomoriis trichrome and orcein stains. The study concluded that the long-term exposure to magnetic fields may induce structural changes in the skin of albino rats being more prominent with time varying than with static electromagnetic field

Ultrastructural study of the epidermal desmosomal cell junctions in apparently normal paralesional skin in pemphigus valgaris

Skin biopsies were taken from ten patients suffering from pemphigus vulgaris, and from five normal persons as well. The biopsies were immediately fixed and processed for examination by transmission electron microscope. In all specimens, most of desmosomal junctions between prickle and basal cells appeared normal. In few scattered acantholytic areas, mainly in lower layers of stratum spinosum, desmosomal junctions showed variable changes associated with partial dissolution of the intercellular cement substance. The hemidesmosomes, at the basal cell-basal lamina junctions, were preserved