CYTOLOGICAL AND CYTOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE SKIN OF HAIRLESS MICE EXPOSED TO HIGH INTENSITY AIR-BORNE SOUND

[摘要] Results of an investigation of abdominal skin changes in hairless mice following exposures to subthermal (no rise in skin temperature) and thermal (increase in skin temperature) levels of high intensity air-borne sound can be summarized as follows (1) Subthermal sonic vibrations have no observable effects on the histological structure or functional activity of the skin. Failure to produce tissue injury or cytochemical changes in skins irradiated daily for 3 months is evidence that mechanical effects of sound, at the intensity levels employed, are negligible. Tissue damage produced by very high energy thermogenic sound is primarily the result of local overheating produced by absorption of sound in the skin. Little heat transfer occurred in the skin laterally from the site of exposure as evidenced by the absence of heat damage in glandular and fibrous elements of adjacent regions. Sound-induced skin erythema is followed by a depletion of skin lipids and a diminution in size of cystic elements in the integument. In skin burns produced with intense sound, there is an obliteration of sebaceous and corneal cysts associated with a marked hypertrophy of dermal collagen. The sequence of histological and cytochemical changes following thermogenic sonic irradiation was found to be in complete accord with the response known to occur following ordinary skin burns.