A proof-of-principle study comparing barrier function and cell morphology in face and body skin.

Abstract

The purpose of this pilot in vivo study was to investigate corneocyte size and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in facial cheek and volar forearm skinas a function of consecutive tape stripping. Changes in corneocyte size and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were measured as a function of stratum corneum (SC) depth at both anatomical sites. To our knowledge, this is the first published quantitative comparison based on these parameters. This work complements our previously published studies on face skin barrier recovery at 24h and 4weeks post-tape stripping [Gorcea etal., Skin Res. Technol., 19, 2013, e375-e382; Gorcea etal., Int. J. Cosmet. Sci. 35, 2013, 250]. Transepidermal water loss in vivo measurements of forearm and facial skin sites were taken before tape stripping commenced (baseline) and after each tape was collected. Optical microscopy and image analysis techniques were employed to characterize corneocyte size as a function of skin depth (tape strip number) for both anatomical sites. Transepidermal water loss increased significantly from baseline with sequential tape stripping at both anatomical skin sites. Volar forearm skin required approximately three times as many tapes to 'damage' the SC barrier (arbitrarily defined as twice baseline TEWL) compared to facial cheek skin demonstrating significant differences in barrier properties between cheeks and forearms (P<0.05). Corneocyte size decreased significantly with depth for both sites (P<0.001). Corneocytes from face skin were significantly smaller than corneocytes from volar forearm skin. Statistically significant differences between facial and body skin stratum corneum cell morphology and transepidermal water loss were demonstrated and quantitatively measured as a function of tape stripping.