From frog integument to human skin: dermatological perspectives from frog skin biology.

For over a century, frogs have been studied across various scientific fields, including physiology, embryology, neuroscience, (neuro)endocrinology, ecology, genetics, behavioural science, evolution, drug development, and conservation biology. In some cases, frog skin has proven very successful as a research model, for example aiding in the study of ion transport through tight epithelia, where it has served as a model for the vertebrate distal renal tubule and mammalian epithelia. However, it has rarely been considered in comparative studies involving human skin.

'Fish matters': the relevance of fish skin biology to investigative dermatology.

Fish skin is a multi-purpose tissue that serves numerous vital functions including chemical and physical protection, sensory activity, behavioural purposes or hormone metabolism. Further, it is an important first-line defense system against pathogens, as fish are continuously exposed to multiple microbial challenges in their aquatic habitat. Fish skin excels in highly developed antimicrobial features, many of which have been preserved throughout evolution, and infection defense principles employed by piscine skin are still operative in human skin.

Towards a comprehensive model of feather regeneration.

Understanding of the regeneration of feathers, despite a 140 year tradition of study, has remained substantially incomplete. Moreover, accumulated errors and mis-statements in the literature have confounded the intrinsic difficulties in describing feather regeneration. Lack of allusion to Rudall's (Rudall [1947] Biochem Biophys Acta 1:549-562) seminal X-ray diffraction study that revealed two distinct keratins, beta- and alpha-, in a mature feather, is one of the several examples where lack of citation long inhibited progress in understanding.

Born in a follicle--a historical perspective.

A review of major studies of tetrapod skin development since the 1870s illustrates how knowledge of structure and mechanism progressed through phases emphasizing Natural History, morphology, endocrinology, and tissue manipulation prior to the prevailing "molecular era." Each successive phase of investigation, while suffering from its own limitations and constraints, has produced conceptual advances. At various times, different systems in various organisms have been research models of choice for practical and/or technical reasons.

Distribution of keratin and associated proteins in the epidermis of monotreme, marsupial, and placental mammals.

The expression of acidic and basic keratins, and of some keratinization marker proteins such as filaggrin, loricrin, involucrin, and trichohyalin, is known for the epidermis of only a few eutherian species. Using light and high-resolution immunocytochemistry, the presence of these proteins has been studied in two monotreme and five marsupial species and compared to that in eutherians. In both monotreme and marsupial epidermis lamellar bodies occur in the upper spinosus and granular layers.