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Transepidermal Water Loss in Young and Aged Healthy Humans

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Textbook of Aging Skin

Abstract

The stratum corneum is the most important barrier to a wide range of molecules, irritants, allergens, small particles, and microorganisms. However, small amounts of water continuously diffuse from the inside to the outside which is called transepidermal water loss (TEWL). TEWL is regarded as one of the most important parameters characterizing skin barrier integrity. Elevated TEWL is usually associated with skin barrier impairments, whereas reduced or low TEWL is considered as skin barrier integrity or improvement. Available evidence suggests that the water diffusion through the stratum corneum seems to remain stable and/or to decrease during aging. Possible reasons are the flattening of the corneocytes, altered and reduced intercellular lipids, reduced natural moisturizing factor content, and/or a reduced skin surface temperature. Such a “normal” TEWL masks the decreases of functional capacity of the skin barrier function in intrinsically and extrinsically aged skin.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Jan Kottner, Annika Vogt, Andrea Lichterfeld & Ulrike Blume-Peytavi

Authors
  1. Jan Kottner
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  2. Annika Vogt
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  3. Andrea Lichterfeld
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  4. Ulrike Blume-Peytavi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Kottner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Miranda A. Farage

  2. Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Kenneth W. Miller

  3. Department Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, California, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Kottner, J., Vogt, A., Lichterfeld, A., Blume-Peytavi, U. (2015). Transepidermal Water Loss in Young and Aged Healthy Humans. In: Farage, M., Miller, K., Maibach, H. (eds) Textbook of Aging Skin. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27814-3_127-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27814-3_127-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27814-3

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