Methods in Skin Research

Research into the structure, function and pathology of skin is carried out by clinicians and scientists from a wide range of disciplines. This book aims to promote critical awareness in the field by describing a variety of techniques in the context of their application to skin research.

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Research into the structure, function and pathology of skin is carried out by clinicians and scientists from an unusually wide range of disciplines. The reasons for this include the size and accessibility of the skin and the wide range of pathological conditions to which it is subject. A result of this diversity of interest, is that the literature on skin research is widely distributed amongst the biological, medical and physical science journals. Meetings are often similarly wide in scope and it is extremely difficult for a worker to understand in any detail more than a small proportion of the work presented. In this respect standard textbooks on, for example, biochemistry are of limited application as many classical techniques have to be adapted before use on such a tough and insoluble tissue as the skin.
This book aims firstly, to promote critical awareness in the field by having a variety of techniques described in detail and in the context of their application to skin research; secondly, to provide scientists and dermatologists wishing to use a technique for the first time with the information which they require in a readily accessible form, and thirdly, to counteract the inappropriate use of techniques by discussing their relative advantages and disadvantages in depth. Particular features are the inclusion of each author's unique "tricks of the trade", discussion of the amount of training needed by a prospective user and the time required to perform experiments. In each case a bibliography of other descriptions and applications is given, together with any appropriate experimental minutiae such as the composition of buffers, names of suppliers etc. .pa