File:Fetal integumentary histology 02.jpg

Fetal integumentary histology

Presence of chondroitin sulfate (a, b), elastin (c, d) and fibronectin (e, f) in 18 weeks’ gestation fetal skin and in adult skin. In the fetal skin, CS was present in the upper part of the dermis (a).

In the adult skin, CS was only visible around the basement membrane zone (b).

Elastin was not present in early-gestation fetal skin (c), but it was observed in the adult skin (d).

FN was detected in the entire fetal skin (e), but it was only present in the basement membrane zone in the adult skin (f).

Scale bars 100 μm

In early gestation (13–14 weeks), fetal epidermis contained a basal layer, one or two intermediate layers and a periderm. At 14 weeks, the fetal dermis consisted of a finely fibrillar dermis that contained many cells. From 16 weeks of gestation, hair pegs were visible that projected into the dermis. The dermis was organized into two regions: an upper fibrillar papillary region and a deep reticular region that contained larger fibers. During further development, the number of epidermal cell layers increased and the hair pegs matured into hair follicles. Developing eccrine sweat glands were detected from week 21.

Original file name: Fig. 5 4403_2009_989_Fig5_HTML.jpg (original figure increased in size)

Reference

<pubmed>19701759</pubmed>| PMC2799629 | Arch Dermatol Res

© Coolen NA, Schouten KC, Middelkoop E, Ulrich MM. 2009 Open Access - This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.