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Functions of the Integumentary System:

1. Protection: against abrasion and UV light
o Prevents entry of microorganisms
o Prevents dehydration by reducing water loss from the body
2. Sensation: Sensory receptors in the form of free nerve endings that detect heat, cold,
touch, pressure and pain
3. Vitamin D production: when exposed to IV light the skin produces a molecule that
can be transformed into Vitamin D
4. Temperature regulation: body temperature is regulated by controlling blood flow thru
the skin and the activity of the sweat glands
o Thermoregulation: homeostatic regulation of body temperature
 Liberating sweat at its surface
 Adjusting flow of blood in the dermis
Mechanisms of heat transfer:
o Conduction heat exchange between 2 materials that are in direct contact with
each other
 Heat loss/gain is much greater when submerged in cold/hot water
(Conduction and convection)
o Convection: transfer of heat by the movement of fluid (gas or liquid) between
areas of different temperature
 Contact of air or water with the body results in heat transfer by both
conduction and convection
 Eg. Breeze or fan
o Radiation: transfer of heat in the form of infrared rays between a warmer
object and a cooler one. No actual contact between the 2
o Evaporation: conversion of liquid into vapor
 Main defense against overheating during exercise

Most heat loss happens thru the skin is by radiation. If environmental temperature
is hot or hotter than the body, heat cannot be loss by radiation then evaporation by
perspiration becomes the means of getting rid of excess heat. (evaporation
however is decreased by high humidity) Convection and Conduction are other
means by which heat may be loss.

5. Excretion: salts, CO2 and small amounts of waste products are lost thru the skin and
in gland secretions
o Excretion of nitrogenous waste like urea, ammonia,
Structural composition of Skin:
1. Epidermis: superficial thinner portion composed of epithelial tissue
2. Dermis: deeper, thicker connective tissue portion
Epidermis
Cells of the Epidermis
1. Keratinocytes
 90% of epidermal cells
 Produce the protein keratin
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 Produce lamellar granules which release a lipid- water repellant

sealant
2. Melanocytes:
 8% of epidermal cells
 With long slender projections that extend between keratinocytes and
transfer melanin granules to them
 Melanin: yellow-red or brown-black pigment that contributes to skin
color and absorbs damaging UV light
o Once inside keratinocyte, they form a protective veil over the
nucleus on the side toward the skin surface to shield nuclear
DNA from damage
o Melanocytes however are themselves susceptible to UV light
damage
3. Langerhans:
 Arise from red bone marrow and migrate to the epidermis
 Paritcipate in the immune response mounted against microbes that
invade the skin
4. Merkel cells
 Least numerous of epidermal cells
 Located in the deepest layers of the epidermis
 Together with Merkel disc they detect touch sensations

Layers of the Skin:

1. Basale: deepest layer of a single layer of cuboidal or columnar keratinocytes
 Stem cell undergo cell division
 Melanocytes and Merkel cells scattered in this layer
2. Spinosum: 8-10 rows of many sided keratinocytes
 Includes arm like processes of melanocytes and Langerhans cells
3. Granulosum: 3-5 rows of flattened keratinocytes
 Organelles begin to degenerate
 Protein keratohyalin which converts tonofilaments into keratin
 Lamellar granules
 Lipid rich water repellent secretion
4. Lucidum: present only in skin of fingertips, palms and soles
 3-5 rows of clear, flat, dead keratinocytes filled with eleidin a keratin
precursor
5. Corneum: 25-30 rows of dead, flat keratinocytes containing keratin
Dermis:
 Strong connective tissue containing collagen and elastic fibers
 Has great tensile strength (resist pulling or stretching forces)
 Has ability to stretch and recoil easily
 Essential to the survival of the epidermis
2 Layers of Dermis:
 Papillary region:
 1/5th of the thickness of the total layer
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 Consists of areolar connective tissue

 Dermal papillae- small fingerlike structures that project into the undersurface of
the epidermis
 Contain capillary loops
 Meissner’s corpuscles: tactile receptors
 Free nerve endings: warmth, coolness, pain, tickling and itching
 Reticular layer: net like
 Consists of dense irregular connective tissue
 Collagen fibers are arranged in a net like manner
 Attached to subcutaneous layer
 Adipose cells. Hair follicles, nerves, sebaceous glands, sweat glands
 Provide skin with strength, extensibility and elasticity
Thck vs Thin Skin
Thin Skin Thick skin
Distribution All parts except palms and Palms and soles
soles
Epidermal thickness thinner thicker
Epidermal strata No Lucidum, thinner Thick lucidum spinosum
spinosum and corneum and corneum
Epidermal ridges Lacking Present
Hair follicles and arrector Present Absent
pili
Sebaceous glands Present Absent
Sudoriferous glands Fewer Numerous
Sensory receptors Sparser Denser
Accessory Structures of the Skin:
Glands associated with the skin:
1. Sebaceous glands: oil glands
 Connected to hair follicles
 Secreting portion lies in the dermis and opens into the neck of a hair
follicle
 Opens directly onto the skin surface in the lips, glans penis, labia minora,
tarsal glands
o Absent in palms, soles
o Abundant in the skin of the breast, face, neck and superior chest
o Small amount in most areas of trunk and limbs
 Sebum- oily secretioin
o Coats the surface of hairs and helps keep them from drying and
becoming brittle
o Prevents excessive evaporation of water
o Keeps the skin soft and pliable
o Inhibits the growth of some bacteria
2. Sweat glands/ Sudoriferous glands
 Release sweat or perspiration,
o into hair follicles or
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o onto the skin surface thru pores

2 kinds of sweat glands:
 Eccrine/ Merocrine Sweat glands:
o Distributed throughout the skin of most regions of the body,
especially in the skin of the forehead, palms and soles
o Absent in the margins of the lips, nail beds, glans penis, glans
clitoris, labia minora and ear drums
o Located mostly deep in the dermis
 Apocrine:
o Skin of the axilla, groin, areolae, bearded regions of the face
o Sweat is viscous, yellowish or milky rich in lipids and proteins
3. Ceruminous glands:
 Modified sweat glands of the external ear
 Cerumen- combined secretion of ceruminous and sebaceous glands
o Provides a sticky barrier that impedes entrance of foreign bodies
and insects
o Waterproofs the canal
o Prevents bacteria and fungi from entering cells
Nails:
o Plates of tightly packed, hard, dead, keratinized epidermal cells
o Clear solid covering of the dorsal surfaces of the distal portions of the digits
o Nail body/plate: visible portion of the nail
 Modified stratum corneum
o Free edge: part of the nail body that extend past the distal end of the digit
 White because there are no underlying capillaries
o Nail root: portion of nail that is buried in a fold of skin
o Lunula: whitish crescent shaped area of the proximal end of the nail body
 Underneath is a thickened region of epithelium where blood vessel
do not show thru, hence appears white
o Hyponychium/ Nail bed: beneath the free edge
 thickened region of stratum corneum
 secures nail to the fingertip
o Eponychium/ cuticle: narrow band of epidermis that extends from and
adheres to the margin of the nail wall
o Nail matrix: proximal portion of epithelium deep to the nail root
 Cells divide by mitosis to produce growth
Hair: present on most skin surfaces
o Except palms, palmar surfaces of fingers, soles and plantar surfaces of the
feet
o Heavily distributed across the scalp, eyebrows, axillae, around external
genitalia
o Genetic and hormonal influences largely determine the thickness and
pattern of hair distribution
o Function:
 Scalp hair: limited protection from injury and from the sun
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 Decreases heat loss from the scalp

 Eyebrows and eyelashes; hair in nostrils and external ear canal:
protect the from foreign particles
 Sense light touch: hair root plexuses
o Shaft: superficial portion of hair projecting above skin surface
o Root: deep to the shaft penetrating into the dermis and even to the
subcutaneous layer
o 3 layers of cells
 Medulla: inner layer
 May be lacking in thinner hair
 2-3 rows of irregularly shaped cells
 Cortex: middle layer
 Forms major part of the shaft
 Consist of elongated cells
 Cuticle: outermost layer
 Single layer of thin flat cells
 Most heavily keratinized
o Hair follicle: surrounds the root of the hair
o Dermal root sheath: dense dermis that surrounds the hair follicle
o Bulb: forms the base of the hair follicle
 Papilla of the hair: nipple shaped indentation in the hair bulb
 Blood vessels that nourish the growing hair follicle
 Hair matrix: germinal layer of cells that arise from st.basale
 Site of cell division
o Arrector pili: extends from superficial dermis of the skin to the dermal
root sheath
 Responsible for goose bumps or goose flesh
o Hair root plexuses: generate impulses when the hair shafts are moved
 sensitive to touch

Sensory Receptors :
Classification:
1. Location
 Exteroceptors/ Cutaneous: near the body surface
i. Detect pressure, touch, pain and temperature
 Visceroceptors/ Interoceptors: located internally
i. Stimulated by pressure, stretching, chemical changes
ii. Hunger, thirst
 Proprioceptors: skeletal muscle, joint capsules and tendons
i. Body movement, orientation in space and muscle stretch
2. Stimulus detected
 Mechanoreceptors: mechanical stimuli, deform or change position of
receptor
 Chemoreceptor: change in chemical concentration, taste, smell
 Thermoreceptors: changes in stimuli
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i. Cold receptors: stratum basale (10-40deg C)

ii. Warm receptors: dermis (32-48degC)
 Nociceptor: activated by intense stimuli from tissue damage
 Photoreceptors: vision
 Osmoreceptors: osmotic pressure
3. Structure
 Free nerve endings:
o Nociceptors:
 Both exteroceptors and visceroceptors
 Stimulus: any noxious stimulus; temperature change;
mechanical
 Pain, temperature, itch, tickle
o Merkel discs
 Exteroceptors
 Light pressure; mechanical
 Discriminative touch
o Root hair plexuses:
 Exteroceptors
 Hair movement; mechanical
 Detect movements on the skin surface that disturb the
hair eg. Insect landing on the hair
 Encapsulated Nerve endings:
o Meissner corpuscle
 Exteroceptors, epidermis, hairless skin
 Light pressure, mechanical
 Touch, low frequency vibration
o Krause corpuscle:
 Mucous membranes
 Mechanical
 Touch, low frequency vibration, textural sensation
o Ruffini corpuscle
 Exteroceptors
 Dermis of the skin
 Mechanical
 Crude and persistent touch
o Pacinian (lamellar) corpuscle:
 Dermis of skin
 Joint capsules
 Deep pressure, mechanical
 Deep pressure; high frequency vibration; stretch

Healing of wounds:
Epidermal Wound healing:
 Healing from wounds that affect the epidermis only
 Eg. Abrasions, minor burns
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 Basal cells of epidermis surrounding the wound break contact with the
basement membrane and migrate as a sheet until advancing cells from all
sides meet
 Contact inhibition: cellular response that stops migration when epidermal cells
encounter one another
 Epidermal growth factor: hormone that stimulate basal cells to divide to
replace the ones that have migrated to the wound.
Deep wound healing:
 When injury extends to dermis and subcutaneous layers
 Inflammatory phase:
o Blood clot knits the wound edges loosely
o Inflammation: eliminate microbes, foreign materials and dead tissues
 Migratory phase:
o Clot becomes a scab
o Epithelial cell migrate beneath the scab to bridge the wound
o Firoblasts begin synthesizing scar tissue and damaged blood vessels
begin to regrow
o Granulation tissue: tissue that fills up the wound
 Proliferative phase:
o Extensive growth of epithelial cells beneath the scab
o Further scar formation and growth of blood vessels
 Maturation phase:
o Scab sloughs off once epidermis ahs been restored to normal thickness
o Collagen fibers become more organized
o Fibroblast decrease in number
o Blood vessels are restored to normal
Fibrosis: process of scar tissue formation
Hypertrophic scar
Keloid