TY - JOUR
T1 - Heterogeneity of fibrillin-rich microfibrils extracted from human skin of diverse ethnicity
AU - Langton, Abigail K.
AU - Hann, Mark
AU - Costello, Patrick
AU - Halai, Poonam
AU - Sisto Alessi César, Sabrina
AU - Lien-Lun Chien, Anna
AU - Kang, Sewon
AU - Griffiths, Christopher E.M.
AU - Sherratt, Michael J.
AU - Watson, Rachel E.B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the technical assistance of Dr Nigel Hodson from The University of Manchester BioAFM Facility. Professor Chris Griffiths is an NIHR Senior Investigator. Professor Griffiths and Professor Rachel Watson are supported in part by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. This study was funded by a programme grant from Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the technical assistance of Dr Nigel Hodson from The University of Manchester BioAFM Facility. Professor Chris Griffiths is an NIHR Senior Investigator. Professor Griffiths and Professor Rachel Watson are supported in part by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. This study was funded by a programme grant from Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Anatomical Society
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - The dermal elastic fibre network is the primary effector of skin elasticity, enabling it to extend and recoil many times over the lifetime of the individual. Fibrillin-rich microfibrils (FRMs) constitute integral components of the elastic fibre network, with their distribution showing differential deposition in the papillary dermis across individuals of diverse skin ethnicity. Despite these differential findings in histological presentation, it is not known if skin ethnicity influences FRM ultrastructure. FRMs are evolutionarily highly conserved from jellyfish to man and, regardless of tissue type or species, isolated FRMs have a characteristic ‘beads-on-a-string’ ultrastructural appearance, with an average inter-bead distance (or periodicity) of 56 nm. Here, skin biopsies were obtained from the photoprotected buttock of healthy volunteers (18-27 years; African: n = 5; European: n = 5), and FRMs were isolated from the superficial papillary dermis and deeper reticular dermis and imaged by atomic force microscopy. In the reticular dermis, there was no significant difference in FRM ultrastructure between European and African participants. In contrast, in the more superficial papillary dermis, inter-bead periodicity was significantly larger for FRMs extracted from European participants than from African participants by 2.20 nm (p <.001). We next assessed whether these differences in FRM ultrastructure were present during early postnatal development by characterizing FRMs from full-thickness neonatal foreskin. Analysis of FRM periodicity identified no significant difference between neonatal cohorts (p =.865). These data suggest that at birth, FRMs are developmentally invariant. However, in adults of diverse skin ethnicity, there is a deviation in ultrastructure for the papillary dermal FRMs that may be acquired during the passage of time from child to adulthood. Understanding the mechanism by which this difference in papillary dermal FRMs arises warrants further study.
AB - The dermal elastic fibre network is the primary effector of skin elasticity, enabling it to extend and recoil many times over the lifetime of the individual. Fibrillin-rich microfibrils (FRMs) constitute integral components of the elastic fibre network, with their distribution showing differential deposition in the papillary dermis across individuals of diverse skin ethnicity. Despite these differential findings in histological presentation, it is not known if skin ethnicity influences FRM ultrastructure. FRMs are evolutionarily highly conserved from jellyfish to man and, regardless of tissue type or species, isolated FRMs have a characteristic ‘beads-on-a-string’ ultrastructural appearance, with an average inter-bead distance (or periodicity) of 56 nm. Here, skin biopsies were obtained from the photoprotected buttock of healthy volunteers (18-27 years; African: n = 5; European: n = 5), and FRMs were isolated from the superficial papillary dermis and deeper reticular dermis and imaged by atomic force microscopy. In the reticular dermis, there was no significant difference in FRM ultrastructure between European and African participants. In contrast, in the more superficial papillary dermis, inter-bead periodicity was significantly larger for FRMs extracted from European participants than from African participants by 2.20 nm (p <.001). We next assessed whether these differences in FRM ultrastructure were present during early postnatal development by characterizing FRMs from full-thickness neonatal foreskin. Analysis of FRM periodicity identified no significant difference between neonatal cohorts (p =.865). These data suggest that at birth, FRMs are developmentally invariant. However, in adults of diverse skin ethnicity, there is a deviation in ultrastructure for the papillary dermal FRMs that may be acquired during the passage of time from child to adulthood. Understanding the mechanism by which this difference in papillary dermal FRMs arises warrants further study.
KW - atomic force microscopy
KW - extracellular matrix
KW - fibrillin-rich microfibrils
KW - skin ethnicity
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U2 - 10.1111/joa.13217
DO - 10.1111/joa.13217
M3 - Article
C2 - 32452018
AN - SCOPUS:85085626412
SN - 0021-8782
VL - 237
SP - 478
EP - 486
JO - Journal of Anatomy
JF - Journal of Anatomy
IS - 3
ER -