Histology and cytochemistry of human skin. XXXVI. The nose and lips

Abstract

The skin of the nose is characterized by often conspicuously dilated openings of the ducts of many subaceous follicles. Histological sections are dominated by gigantic sebaceous follicles, but there are also numerous vellus hairs with small sebaceous glands. All hair follicles on the surface of the nose and in the vestibule are completely invested with nerve end organs. In the vestibule, the glabrous upper surface has intraepidermal nerves and a few mucocutaneous end organs. the vermillion zone of the lip, which seperates the skin of the external lip and the mucosa of the inner lip, is keratinizing glabrous epithelium, often with numerous sebaceous glands in the upperlip. The transitional area between the keratinizing epithelium of the vermillion and the nonkeratinizing epithelium of the labial mucosa is abundantly supplied with mucocutaneous end organs, with only a few in the labial mucosa. The mucoserous glands of the labial mucosa are richly innervated.