A comparison of skin changes caused by onchocerciasis and aging.

Abstract

SummaryForty-five Africans with Onchocerca volvulus infection and ten non-infected controls were examined for histological changes in the skin. Both series included young people and persons of advanced age. The following was found: In noninfected subjects, advanced age is associated with damage and a reduction of the fine elastic fibers of the papillary layer, and with a shortening and thickening of the fibers of the reticular layer which are, however, less marked. The degree of the reduction increases with age.A similar reduction of the fine elastic fibers is caused by O. volvulus infections already in young people. It increases with the intensity and the duration of the infection.A small number of young non-infected and apparently healthy people likewise showed damage and a reduction of the elastic fibers without any obvious cause.One may therefore assume that different causes, among them advanced age and infection with O. volvulus, produce in varying degree a destruction and reduction of the fine elastic fibers in the papillary layer of the skin.