DERMO-EPIDERMAL SEPARATION WITH SUCTION - ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC AND HISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF INITIAL EVENTS OF BLISTERING ON HUMAN SKIN

[摘要] Suction pressure of 150 mm Hg caused, within 3 hr., dermo-epidermal separation of healthy human skin. Suction blistering started on tops of dermal papillae. The cleavage occurred in the plane between the basement membrane and the basal cell layer. The half-desmosomes of basal keratinocytes were released from the dermis but the desmosomal cell to cell contact resisted the tension of the fluid accumulating between the basement membrane and the plasm membrane of epidermal cells. At rete ridges and around epidermal appendages suction stretch often caused widening of intercellular spaces. There some melanocytes and even keratinocytes remained adherent to the blister base. In blister roof, the cells and thier constitutents generally had a normal ultrastructural appearance. As a rule, the dermis showed negligible alterations, and there was neither morphologic nor histochemical evidence of inflammation or autolysis.