Fig. 6.

Aspect of the basement membrane at the dermal-epidermal junction before and during wound repair in aged human skin. a Gomori’s periodic acid methenamine silver staining of basement membranes in elderly human skin samples during wound healing. Basement membranes and reticular fibers stain silver and cell counter-staining is pink. Unwounded skin is shown as reference (left). Black arrows indicate location of the basement membrane at the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ-BM). The DEJ-BM appears very infrequently at the wound site four weeks post-wounding. Scale bar = 50 μm. b Transmission electron microscopy images of skin samples taken prior to wounding (left) and four weeks post-wounding (right) in elderly adults. HD: hemidesmosome; LL: Lamina lucida; LD: lamina densa; AF: anchoring fibrils. Scale bar = 500 nm