Ultrastructure of the human stratum corneum.

The ultrastructural study of the intercellular spaces of the human stratum corneum was based on transmission electron microscopy of thin vertical sections and freeze-fracture replicas, field emission scanning electron microscopy and immunofluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy. The maturation of the corneosomes and their enzymatic degradation could be depicted at strategic interfaces. These sharp and rapid metamorphoses are now relatively well understood from a morphological point of view. But morphology raises a lot of unsolved physiological problems. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel