Low-flux electron diffraction study on body site dependence of stratum corneum structures in human skin

For analysis of the structure of human skin stratum corneum (SC), we introduced low-flux electron diffraction (ED) and developed a new statistical analysis method for obtained ED intensity profiles. By use of this method we compared the differences in the intercellular lipid organization on the SC corneocytes collected at human forehead, cheek, and forearm by the grid-stripping method. As a result, we found a significant regional difference in the distribution of lipid hydrocarbon chain packing domains in the SC; the ring-type ED pattern with orthorhombic symmetry was more often observed in the forearm SC than in the forehead and cheek SCs. We also found that the dependence of the background electron diffraction intensity on the modulus of the scattering vector differed significantly among them. The present method for the analysis of a large number of ED patterns of noninvasively obtained SC samples could be a powerful tool to scrutinize the structural difference between the SCs under various experimental conditions.