Structural changes in aging human skin.

In both exposed and protected areas of progressively older people the underside of the epidermis becomes increasingly flattened out. This flattening is accompanied by a comparable rarefaction of the superficial blood vessels. In this article we review the architecture of the elastic fiber framework in the papillary dermis of skin protected from the sun; aging changes that occur are similar to, but less severe than, those in sun-exposed areas. Most cutaneous sensory end organs are little affected by aging; those in the external genitalia, however, and particularly those underneath the vaginal epithelium become smaller and some disappear.