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Sebum Production

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Textbook of Aging Skin

Abstract

Sebum is produced exclusively by the sebaceous glands. It serves as a vehicle for odors involved in sexual and social attraction. By a similar mechanism, the newborn child commonly recognizes his/her mother’s body odor. The reciprocal recognition is likely during the first weeks of life when the sebaceous glands are active in the newborn. It is noteworthy that the individual sebum-driven scents of each human being are commonly detected by dogs on skin and clothes. Other volatile compounds corresponding to pheromones are produced by mammalian skin in a mixture of apocrine sweat and sebum. In addition, sebum brings vitamin E, the melanocyte-stimulating hormone isotype α (α-MSH), and other various compounds to the stratum corneum (SC).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Skin Bioengineering and Imaging, Department of Dermatopathology, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, Pascale Quatresooz & Gérald E. Piérard

Authors
  1. Claudine Piérard-Franchimont
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  2. Pascale Quatresooz
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  3. Gérald E. Piérard
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Procter & Gamble Company, 6110 Center Hill Avenue, 45224, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Miranda A. Farage Ph.D. (Principal Scientist) (Principal Scientist)

  2. The Procter & Gamble Company, 6110 Center Hill Avenue, 45224, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Kenneth W. Miller Ph.D. (Associate Director) (Associate Director)

  3. Department of Dermatology, University of California, School of Medicine, 222 SE 8th Ave., Suite 563, 94122, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach M.D. (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Piérard-Franchimont, C., Quatresooz, P., Piérard, G.E. (2010). Sebum Production. In: Farage, M.A., Miller, K.W., Maibach, H.I. (eds) Textbook of Aging Skin. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89656-2_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89656-2_33

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-89655-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-89656-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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