Elemental composition of skin tissue by PIXE and INA analyses

Abstract

Hypertrophic scars are a particular type of scar that can form after any type of dermal injury. They are unsightly, red, elevated above nomal skin level, itchy and painful. At present no-one knows why these scars form. Due to the differences between scar tissue and normal skin it was decided to analyse skin tissue which at a later date would be compared to scar tissue. Split skin graft (epidemis) samples as well as full thickness skin (epidemis to demis) tissue were analysed using PIXE and RBS with a 2 MeV proton beam. The epidemis was compared to the demis to see if there were any variations between the two. In all the samples P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, and Cd were detected and in a majority of the samples Zn and Ba were found, using PIXE. It was found that, between the epidemis and demis, there was an significant increase in P in the epidermis in both full thickness and split skin graft samples. Complementary elemental analysis was also performed using neutron activation, and Br, Na and Zn were detected.