Development of a minimally invasive epidermal abrasion device for clinical skin sampling and its applications in...

A new abrasion tool (US patent US7087063 B2) has been developed for collecting skin epidermal samples. This device includes a central shaft that holds the probe in a split chuck. Of the variety of probe designs tested, the laser-cut hollow tube (HT) probe abraded the basal layer of the epidermis most consistently, resulting in representative epidermal skin samples. Compared with traditional clinical methods, the abrasion method allows for high-throughput epidermal skin collection with minimal invasiveness to the volunteer subjects. A large number of abrasion samples have been collected in various clinical studies with no adverse effects observed. Epidermal abrasion, when used appropriately and with the optimized probes, can yield high quality tissue samples that are representative of the epidermis. A sufficient quantity of RNA and protein can be obtained for many subsequent molecular and biochemical applications. Because of its minimal invasiveness and high-throughput nature, the abrasion method can be a valuable tool used to investigate the efficacy of topical applications of skin care products.