Evaluation of cellular injury in skin utilizing enzyme activities in suction blister fluid.

Suction blisters were produced on the skin of anesthetised rats and marker enzyme activities measured in the blister fluid from normal and chemically damaged skin. Cutaneous application of tributyltin, in doses known to produce morphological damage, increased the activity of a number of enzymes in the blister fluid within 2.5 hr. The increases were dose-related and resulted from cutaneous damage as they were detected at times and doses when there were no comparable changes in plasma enzyme activities. Increased enzyme levels in suction blister fluid from chemically damaged skin appear to reflect the degree of skin injury and may offer a direct and quantitative assessment of this injury.