Abstract
THE margin between dermis and epidermis is one natural–splitting layer of human skin. By the gentle tryptic digestion of flat human skin slices for a length of time depending on their thickness, it is possible to disengage the epidermis in the form of an intact sheet uncontaminated by mesodermal elements. There is histological1 and clinical2 evidence that the elastic fibres of the so–called “basement membrane” play an important part in anchoring the epidermis to the underlying tissue. Elastic fibres are known to be rapidly and specifically dissolved by trypsin.
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Pautrier, L. M., and Woringer, F., Ann. de Dermat, et Syph., 1, 985 (1930); Szodoray, L., Arch. Derm. Syph., 23, 920 (1931). The second paper reviews the histological evidence.
Clinical and other evidence is discussed by Sutton, R. L., and Sutton, R. L., "Diseases of the Skin", London, 1939, pp. 5–6, 562–7.
Chambers, R. W., and de Rényi, G. S., Amer. J. Anat., 35, 385 (1935).
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MEDAWAR, P. Sheets of Pure Epidermal Epithelium from Human Skin. Nature 148, 783 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148783a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148783a0
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