Hydration kinetics of the dorsal stratum corneum studied by ultra-high-resolution visible-light OCT
SJ Matcher1,2,3, M Duan1,2,*, D Revin1
1 School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK.
2 Sheffield Dermatology Research, University of Sheffield, UK.
3 INSIGNEO Institute, University of Sheffield, UK.
* current address: Department of Dermatology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China
Abstract
Stratum corneum (SC) thickness and hydration provide critical insights into skin barrier health. To evaluate human SC morphology across varying hydration states, a high-resolution Fourier domain visible light optical coherence tomography (VIS-OCT) system—achieving ~1 μm axial tissue resolution—was built in-house and used to image the dorsal hands of 12 healthy subjects (7 males, 5 females; aged 21–59).
Baseline SC thickness averaged 9 ± 0.1 μm. Following 40 minutes of water immersion, SC thickness significantly increased to 19 ± 0.2 μm, then returned to 8 ± 0.1 μm after 40 minutes of air drying. VIS-OCT reflectance also tracked these hydration changes, shifting by between 4 & 12 dB during hydration and decreasing by between 4 & 13| dB during dehydration. Notably, SC reflectance data demonstrated a moderate-to-strong individual correlation with conventional corneometer hydration measurements.
These findings demonstrate that high-resolution VIS-OCT effectively quantifies dynamic structural and optical changes in the skin barrier during hydration and dehydration.
Speaker
Stephen Matcher
University of Sheffield
UK
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