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Skin & Appendages

  • Epidermis is stratified squamous keratinized with orderly maturation from basal → spinous → granular → cornified layers.
  • Dermis contains adnexa (hair follicles, sebaceous and eccrine/apocrine glands), vessels, nerves, and variable collagen/elastic fibers.
  • Papillary dermis has finer collagen and capillary loops; reticular dermis is thicker, coarser collagen.
  • Subcutis is lobulated fat separated by fibrous septa with vessels and nerves.
  • Basal layer p63+/CK5/6+, attached by hemidesmosomes; melanocytes and Merkel cells interspersed.
  • Spinous layer with desmosomal “spines”; granular layer with keratohyalin granules; stratum corneum anuclear.
  • Thickness and rete ridge pattern vary by site (thick acral skin vs thin eyelid).
  • Infundibulum (opens to surface, keratinized), isthmus, and inferior segment (bulb with matrix, dermal papilla).
  • Outer root sheath CK5/6+; inner root sheath trichohyalin+; matrix cells Ki-67 high near bulb.
  • Arrector pili smooth muscle inserts at bulge region; sebaceous gland opens into infundibulum.
  • Sebaceous: lobulated, foamy cytoplasm, holocrine secretion; EMA/CK7+, androgen responsive.
  • Eccrine: secretory coil (pale glycogen-rich clear cells + darker myoepithelial rim) and straight duct segments; spiral intraepidermal duct (acrosyringium).
  • Apocrine: larger lumen, decapitation secretion, located in axilla/groin/areola; ducts may keratinize near skin surface.
  • Superficial vascular plexus in papillary dermis, deeper plexus at dermal–subcutis junction.
  • Nerves and Meissner/Pacinian corpuscles depending on site; perineurium EMA+, S100 highlights Schwann cells.