Commentary on: Micro-Needling Depth Penetration, Presence of Pigment Particles, and Fluorescein-Stained Platelets: Clinical Usage for Aesthetic Concerns.

Abstract

Micro-needling is a relatively novel technique that uses needles ranging from 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm in order to create micro-wounds or channels in the skin. The microneedles are designed to penetrate the stratum corneum without traveling into the nerve fibers of the skin. In doing so, micro-needling can create micro channels in the skin relatively painlessly. The channels allow for delivery of macromolecules through the skin, and, while healing, promote collagen production in the skin. As a result, micro-needling is an effective tool for treating aesthetic skin concerns such as wrinkling, as well as delivering transdermal medications and vaccines. The author aimed to determine average depth penetration of microneedles, as well as the optimal time of topical application to achieve maximum depth of macromolecule dissemination through the skin after micro-needling treatment.1 In studies I, II, and III, the study utilized low sample sizes of only facial skin excised from Caucasian patients aged 72, 73, and 62, respectively. The use of only these pre-auricular skin strips from a narrow ethnic background limits the study's broader applications. …