Figure 7.

Ageing of the capsule of Meissner corpuscles. Images of representative Meissner corpuscles (arrows) from subjects of different ages, which included two corpuscles from a 22‐year‐old subject (a,b), two from a 40‐year‐old subject (c,d), two from a 55‐year‐old subject (e,f) and two from an 88‐year‐old subject (g,h), immunostained for CD34. Meissner corpuscles are highlighted with arrows. There was a decreasing gradient of CD34 expression from the 22‐year‐old subject, who had strong expression, to the 88‐year‐old subject, who did not have significant expression, suggesting the absence of Meissner corpuscle capsules at that age. The gradient of expression is attributable to a thicker and more continous capsule in the younger individuals in contrast to the discontinous and fine capsule of older corpuscles. Some blood vessels are found in proximity to Meissner corpuscles, with strong endothelial CD34 expression. bv, blood vessel; ep, epidermis. Scale bar: 50 µm.