[Changes in the microstructure of the human epidermis following local vacuum exfoliation]

Structural rearrangements of the human epidermis have been studied after its local vacuum exfoliation. Blisters have been formed in 48 men-volunteers by means of negative pressure up to 0.7 kg/cm2 and during the following 72 h structure of the exfoliated epidermis has been investigated. Immediately after the blister formation the epidermal basal layer is traumatized, a part of its cells die in some time after the lesion. In the center of most of the cells of the spinous layer there is a large vacuole which presses back the nucleus. However, the whole epidermis is not ruined, and during 24 h actively regenerates. The remaining viable cells into the blister lumen. By the end of the first 24 h span they practically cover from below the whole surface of the exfoliated epidermis. In the cells of the spinous layer amount and size of vacuoles decrease, the nuclei return to the central position. In 48 h in the spinous layer keratohyalin granules are revealed, moreover, in the cells, arranging on the border with the basal layer. By 72 h within the epidermis of the number of necrotic areas sharply increases. All the arrangements in the epidermal structure occur at the absence of mitotic division of cells.