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Some Observations Concerning Enzymatic Activity and Lipid Film on the Human Skin
FRANZ HERRMANN, M.D.;
LEONARD C. HARBER, M.D.;
RICHARD SCHER;
LEONA MANDOL
AMA Arch Derm. 1957;76(3):282-287.
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Introduction
Studies concerning the amount of free fatty acids in the lipids on the skin must of necessity concern themselves also with the activity of enzymes beneath and upon the skin surface. For the presence of free fatty acids on the skin surface presumably is to a great extent due to lipolysis, i. e., to the hydrolytic breakdown of esters, produced by different esterases. Biochemical and histochemical analysis has shown that such enzymes are present physiologically in the skin.1-3 In addition, however, lipolytic enzymes are produced in great measure by the microbial flora on the skin.
Besides the enzymatic liberation of fatty acids outside and inside the skin, enzymatic esterification occurs in the skin as well. Kooyman, for example, demonstrated esterification of cholesterol in the epidermal cells.4
Nicolaides and Rothman, moreover, demonstrated that human skin is able to synthesize fatty acids in vitro (from
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
Author Affiliations
New York
From the Department of Dermatology and Syphilology of the New York University Post-Graduate Medical School (Dr. Marion B. Sulzberger, Chairman) and the Skin and Cancer Unit of the New York University Hospital.
Footnotes
Received for publication May 15, 1957.
Presented in a Symposium on The Role of Enzymes in Dermatology held under the auspices of the Bronx Dermatological Society on Dec. 20, 1956.
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