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Textbook of Aging Skin pp 1197–1202Cite as

Transepidermal Water Loss in Young and Aged Healthy Humans

Abstract

The stratum corneum is the most important barrier to a wide range of molecules, irritants, allergens, small particles, and microorganisms. However, small amounts of water continuously diffuse from the inside to the outside which is called transepidermal water loss (TEWL). TEWL is regarded as one of the most important parameters characterizing skin barrier integrity. Elevated TEWL is usually associated with skin barrier impairments, whereas reduced or low TEWL is considered as skin barrier integrity or improvement. Available evidence suggests that the water diffusion through the stratum corneum seems to remain stable and/or to decrease during aging. Possible reasons are the flattening of the corneocytes, altered and reduced intercellular lipids, reduced natural moisturizing factor content, and/or a reduced skin surface temperature. Such a “normal” TEWL masks the decreases of functional capacity of the skin barrier function in intrinsically and extrinsically aged skin.

Keywords

  • Corneocytes
  • Intercellular lipids
  • Skin barrier
  • Stratum corneum
  • Transepidermal water loss

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Jan Kottner, Andrea Lichterfeld & Ulrike Blume-Peytavi

  2. Clinical Research Center for Hair and Skin Science, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Annika Vogt

Authors
  1. Jan Kottner
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  2. Annika Vogt
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  3. Andrea Lichterfeld
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  4. Ulrike Blume-Peytavi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Kottner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Winton Hill Business Center, The Procter & Gamble Company , Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Miranda A. Farage

  2. Margoshes-Miller Consulting, LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Kenneth W. Miller

  3. Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Kottner, J., Vogt, A., Lichterfeld, A., Blume-Peytavi, U. (2017). Transepidermal Water Loss in Young and Aged Healthy Humans. In: Farage, M., Miller, K., Maibach, H. (eds) Textbook of Aging Skin. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47398-6_127

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47398-6_127

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-47397-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-47398-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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