Suction blister techniques for measurement of human skin collagen synthesis

Types I and III collagen are the main fibrillar collagens in the skin. Marked changes occur in the biosynthesis of these proteins during treatment with various drugs, upon ageing and in several diseases. Since conventional methods of assessing these changes have several disadvantages, a new method for estimating collagen synthesis in human skin in vivo has recently been developed. In this method suction blisters are induced on intact, and treated or diseased skin and types I and III procollagen propeptides are measured radioimmunologically in suction blister fluid (SBF).

The concentrations of type I and III procollagen propeptides in SBF reflect the corresponding local ongoing skin collagen synthesis. This method offers a new sensitive tool for experimental and clinical dermatology for monitoring skin collagen synthesis. With this method it has been possible, for example, for the first time directly to show in vivo that glucocorticoids rapidly and dramatically decrease human skin collagen synthesis.