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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Cultivating a Three-dimensional Reconstructed Human Epidermis at a Large Scale
Published on: May 28, 2021
Apoptosis in the epidermis
Kiyofumi Yamanishi1, Chun-Shen Shen, Hitoshi Mizutani
1Department of Dermatology, Hyogo College of Medicine, Japan.
Abstract:
Keratinization is a specialized form of apoptosis that produces the stratum corneum concomitant with keratinocyte cell death. Apoptosis of keratinocytes occurs not only during normal keratinization but also in response to various intracellular or extracellular death stimuli, such as genetic defects or UVB. In general, apoptosis is characterized by chromatin condensation, membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage, formation of apoptotic bodies, and deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation. The nick-end labeling technique is a method to detect DNA fragmentation and is useful to assess the presence of apoptotic cells in tissues or cells. In this chapter, a practical procedure for nick-end labeling using paraffin-embedded sections of skin specimens is described.
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