We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it, and pierce it. Our intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising our health, our identity, and our individuality. This ...dazzling synthetic overview, written with a poetic touch and taking many intriguing side excursions, is a complete guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us who we are. Skin: A Natural History celebrates the evolution of three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations. Jablonski begins with a look at skin's structure and functions and then tours its three-hundred-million-year evolution, delving into such topics as the importance of touch and how the skin reflects and affects emotions. She examines the modern human obsession with age-related changes in skin, especially wrinkles. She then turns to skin as a canvas for self-expression, exploring our use of cosmetics, body paint, tattooing, and scarification. Skin: A Natural History places the rich cultural canvas of skin within its broader biological context for the first time, and the result is a tremendously engaging look at ourselves.
Living Color is the first book to investigate the social history of skin color from prehistory to the present, showing how our body's most visible trait influences our social interactions in profound ...and complex ways. In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, Nina G. Jablonski begins with the biology and evolution of skin pigmentation, explaining how skin color changed as humans moved around the globe. She explores the relationship between melanin pigment and sunlight, and examines the consequences of rapid migrations, vacations, and other lifestyle choices that can create mismatches between our skin color and our environment. Richly illustrated, this book explains why skin color has come to be a biological trait with great social meaning— a product of evolution perceived by culture. It considers how we form impressions of others, how we create and use stereotypes, how negative stereotypes about dark skin developed and have played out through history—including being a basis for the transatlantic slave trade. Offering examples of how attitudes about skin color differ in the U.S., Brazil, India, and South Africa, Jablonski suggests that a knowledge of the evolution and social importance of skin color can help eliminate color-based discrimination and racism.
Written by a leading dermatologist, The Blue Man and Other Stories of the Skin provides a compelling and accessible introduction to the life of our largest organ, while also recounting the author's ...experiences with memorable patients he has treated who suffer from mysterious skin conditions. Robert Norman begins by highlighting the qualities of the skin, tracing the history of its conditions and diseases, then examining the cultural, social and psychological impact of both color and irregularity. The book also features an absorbing collection of stories about some of his most intriguing patients: from a man whose skin mysteriously turned blue, to a hypochondriacal woman who begins to show signs of a life-threatening disease. This is a fascinating account of the dynamic nature of the skin, and the people who inhabit it.
Curcumin is a compound isolated from turmeric, a plant known for its medicinal use. Recently, there is a growing interest in the medical community in identifying novel, low-cost, safe molecules that ...may be used in the treatment of inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that curcumin may represent an effective agent in the treatment of several skin conditions. We examined the most relevant in vitro and in vivo studies published to date regarding the use of curcumin in inflammatory, neoplastic, and infectious skin diseases, providing information on its bioavailability and safety profile. Moreover, we performed a computational analysis about curcumin's interaction towards the major enzymatic targets identified in the literature. Our results suggest that curcumin may represent a low-cost, well-tolerated, effective agent in the treatment of skin diseases. However, bypass of limitations of its in vivo use (low oral bioavailability, metabolism) is essential in order to conduct larger clinical trials that could confirm these observations. The possible use of curcumin in combination with traditional drugs and the formulations of novel delivery systems represent a very promising field for future applicative research.
There is a need to rapidly screen individuals for heat strain and fever using skin temperature (Tsub.sk) as an index of deep body temperature (Tsub.b). This study’s aim was to assess whether Tsub.sk ...could serve as an accurate and valid index of Tsub.b during a simulated heatwave. Seven participants maintained a continuous schedule over 9-days, in 3-day parts; pre-/post-HW (25.4 °C), simulated-HW (35.4 °C). Contact thermistors measured Tsub.sk (Tsub.forehead, Tsub.finger); radio pills measured gastrointestinal temperature (Tsub.gi). Proximal-distal temperature gradients (ΔTsub.forehead–finger) were also measured. Measurements were grouped into ambient conditions: 22, 25, and 35 °C. Tsub.gi and Tsub.forehead only displayed a significant relationship in 22 °C (r: 0.591; p < 0.001) and 25 °C (r: 0.408; p < 0.001) conditions. A linear regression of all conditions identified Tsub.forehead and ΔTsub.forehead–finger as significant predictors of Tsub.gi (rsup.2: 0.588; F: 125.771; p < 0.001), producing a root mean square error of 0.26 °C. Additional residual analysis identified Tsub.forehead to be responsible for a plateau in Tsub.gi prediction above 37 °C. Contact Tsub.forehead was shown to be a statistically suitable indicator of Tsub.gi in non-HW conditions; however, an error of ~1 °C makes this physiologically redundant. The measurement of multiple sites may improve Tsub.b prediction, though it is still physiologically unsuitable, especially at higher ambient temperatures.
The role of epidermal proteolysis in overdesquamation was revealed in Netherton syndrome, a rare ichthyosis due to genetic deficiency of the LEKTI inhibitor of serine proteases. Recently, we ...developed activography, a new histochemical method, to spatially localize and semiquantitatively assess proteolytic activities using activity‐based probes. Activography provides specificity and versatility compared to in situ zymography, the only available method to determine enzymatic activities in tissue biopsies. Here, activography was validated in skin biopsies obtained from an array of distinct disorders and compared with in situ zymography. Activography provides a methodological advancement due to its simplicity and specificity and can be readily adapted as a routine diagnostic assay. Interestingly, the levels of epidermal proteolysis correlated with the degree of desquamation independent of skin pathology. Thus, deregulated epidermal proteolysis likely represents a universal mechanism underlying aberrant desquamation.
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