Figure 2.

Skin structure and function. The human epidermis evolves during gestation to form a well-designed, structurally sophisticated, integrated, cohesive, and protective tissue composed of four major layers, that is, basal, spinous, granular, and SC (cornified). Within the spinous and granular layers, the cells are attached to each other via desmosomes, protein-based structures that interconnect the layers of the epidermal barrier. A wound can be defined as a “breach of the integument, beginning at the SC” and/or any change that disrupts the normal structure and homeostasis. To see this illustration in color, the reader is referred to the web version of this article at www.liebertpub.com/wound