title: Relationship between the depth of facial wrinkles and the density of the retinacula cutis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify whether there is a relationship between the depth of facial wrinkles and the density of the retinacula cutis in the subcutaneous tissue of the skin.
  
  
  METHODS
  Wrinkle depth was assessed with image analysis on the forehead and the lateral canthus of human cadavers. The density of the retinacula cutis was measured in Azan-Mallory-stained skin sections obtained around the wrinkles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Gross Anatomy Section, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-five male and female cadavers (35-93 years old).
  
  
  METHODS
  The maximum depth of each wrinkle was used to represent the wrinkle's degree. In the skin sections, the density of the retinacula cutis was measured around the deepest point of each wrinkle in a 1-mm-wide area (the wrinkle-specific area) and a 10-mm-wide area that included the wrinkle (the wrinkle-inclusive area).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both the wrinkle-specific and wrinkle-inclusive areas, the retinacula cutis densities became lower in the forehead and in the lateral canthus areas. When a wrinkle was shallow, the density was lower in the wrinkle-specific area than in the wrinkle-inclusive area. With wrinkle progression, the density difference between the wrinkle-specific and the wrinkle-inclusive areas gradually decreased until there was no apparent difference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Facial wrinkles seem to develop above sites of reduced lower retinacula cutis density. As a wrinkle develops, the density decreases in both the wrinkle-specific and the wrinkle-inclusive areas, whereas the density difference between those areas vanishes.
authors.affiliation: Gross Anatomy Section, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, 890-8544 Japan.
authors.forename: Kazue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsukahara
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tamatsu
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugawara
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D015595:Skin Aging / Q000473:pathology*