ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Evaluation of (immuno)histological and cell biological changes in damaged skin requires often an invasive skin biopsy, making in vivo models inappropriate to study skin damage. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) might overcome this limitation. Therefore, we evaluated the use of a tape-stripping model in combination with RCM to provide morphological data on skin damage and recovery. METHODS: In 25 volunteers, a tape-stripping stimulus was applied. The skin was imaged with RCM during 1 week and 3 mm punch biopsies were obtained. RESULTS: Strong correlations between epidermal thickness determined by RCM and conventional histological measurements were found. RCM thickness measurements correlated well with epidermal proliferation. The 10× or 15× repeated tape-stripping resulted in skin damage similar to acute stripping. Mild repeated tape-stripping showed no skin damage. CONCLUSION: Overall, we demonstrated that non-invasive RCM in combination with tape-stripping could be used as model to obtain morphological and cell biological data on skin-material interactions.
Subject(s)
Dermoscopy/methods , Microscopy, Confocal/methods , Skin/injuries , Skin/pathology , Specimen Handling/methods , Surgical Tape , Biopsy/methods , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Young AdultABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of skin with natural grass and artificial turf at clinical, histological and immunohistochemical level. Therefore, 14 male volunteers performed slidings on dry natural grass, wet natural grass and artificial turf. Directly and 24 h after the slidings, a clinical picture and a 3-mm punch biopsy of the lesion were taken. Paraffin sections (6 µm) were hematoxylin-eosin stained. Immunohistochemistry was performed for CD3, hBD-2, K16, K10, Ki67 and HSP70. Clinically, a sliding performed on artificial turf caused less erythema but more abrasion compared to natural grass. At histological level, artificial turf or dry natural grass damaged the stratum corneum the most. Directly after the sliding, CD3, hBD-2, K16, K10, Ki67 and HSP70 expression was normal. 24 h after a sliding on artificial turf or dry natural grass, an increase of K16, hBD-2 and HSP70 expression was observed. In this pilot study it was not possible to clearly distinguish between skin damage induced by a sliding on artificial turf and natural grass. However, small differences at clinical and histological level seem to exist. This demonstrates the potential of the skin as readout system to evaluate artificial turf systems and mechanical skin damage.
