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The skin's protective acid mantle and lipid barrier sit on top of the stratum disjunctum. [5] The stratum disjunctum is the uppermost and loosest layer of skin. The stratum compactum is the comparatively deeper, more compacted and more cohesive part of the stratum corneum. [ 6 ]
Skin immunity is a property of skin that allows it to resist infections from pathogens. In addition to providing a passive physical barrier against infection, the skin also contains elements of the innate and adaptive immune systems which allows it to actively fight infections. Hence the skin provides defense in depth against infection.
The epidermis, "epi" coming from the Greek language meaning "over" or "upon", is the outermost layer of the skin. It forms the waterproof, protective wrap over the body's surface, which also serves as a barrier to infection and is made up of stratified squamous epithelium with an underlying basal lamina.
The acid mantle is a very thin, delicate, slightly acidic film covering the entire surface of human skin, serving as a protective barrier against pathogens and reduces body odor. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The acidic pH at the skin's surface mainly maintained by free amino acids and α-hydroxy acids ( lactic acids ) excreted from sweat ; free fatty acids and ...
The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. [1] The epidermal layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens [2] and regulates the amount of water released from the body into the atmosphere through transepidermal water loss.
A number of structural proteins (filaggrin, keratin), enzymes (e.g. proteases), lipids, and antimicrobial peptides contribute to maintain the important barrier function of the skin. Keratinization is part of the physical barrier formation ( cornification ), in which the keratinocytes produce more and more keratin and undergo terminal ...
The word skin originally only referred to dressed and tanned animal hide and the usual word for human skin was hide. Skin is a borrowing from Old Norse skinn "animal hide, fur", ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *sek-, meaning "to cut" (probably a reference to the fact that in those times animal hide was commonly cut off to be used as garment).
Most fungal infections related to skin sloughing are caused by dermatophytes. [citation needed] Because this type of fungi require keratin to grow, they target the epidermis. The more superficial layers of the dermis often serve as a protective barrier against these fungi because they are dry and typically dead.