Lecture One - Skin Flashcards
How much of your body weight is contributed by skin
16%
How much surface are does skin cover
1.5-2m^2
Why did we adapt to have bare sweaty skin
- climate change meant we started running in open grass land
- no hair meant efficient heat loss - through sweat glands
Functions of skin and accessory structures
- Protect underlying tissue and organs from impact, abrasion, fluid loss and chemical attack
- Ecrete salt, water and organic wast through intergumentary glands
- Maintain a constant body temperature through evaporative cooling and insulation
- Production of melanin which protects underlying tissue from ulatraviolet radiation
- Produciton of keratin which protects from abrasion and serves as a water repellant
- Synthesis of vitamin D3, a steroid which is subsequently converted into calcitriol, a hormone important to normal calcium metabolism
- Store lipids in adipocytes in the dermis and in adipose tissue in the subcutaneous layer
- Detect touch, pressure, pain and temperature stimuli, and reply that information to the nervous system
Skin is a ____ organ
- composite
- made of all tissue types
Primary layers of the skin
- epidermis (cutaneous)
- dermis (cutaneous)
- hypodermics (subcutaneous)
Features of the epidermis
- stratified barrier
- mostly keratinocytes
- no blood circulation (avascular)
Features of the dermis
- protein fibres for strength (collagen and elastin)
- vascular (nourishes epidermis)
Features of the hypodermis
- adipose tissue
What is the predominant tissue of the epidermis
Epithelial tissue
What kind of epeithelia is the epidermis made of
Stratified squamous epithelium
Simple squamous
Simple Cuboidal
Simple columnar
Stratified squamous
Stratified cuboidal
Stratified columnar
Layers of the epidermis (thin skin)
Stratum cornerman
Stratum granulosum
Stratum spinosum
Stratum basale
Stratum cornerman
- dead, dried out hard cells without nuclei
Stratum granulosum
- contain granules that promote dehydration of the cell, cross linking of keratin fibre
- waxy material is secreted into the intercellular spaces
Stratum spinosum
- intercellular brindles called desmosomes link the cells together
- the cells become increasingly flattened as they move upward
Stratum basale
- columnar (tall) regenerative cells
- as the basal cell divides, a daughter cell migrates upwards to replenish the layer above
Desmosomes
Anchours adjacent/ neighbouring cells in epidermis