Background: Porcine ear skin is used in studies of percutaneous penetration as a substitute for human skin. The objective of the present study was to determine the structure of the hair follicles on the dorsal area of porcine ear skin and make a morphometric comparison with the hair follicles of human skin.
Materials and methods: Sections of frozen biopsies were cut vertically to the skin surface in longitudinal sections using a cryotome and were investigated using microscopy. For each hair follicle, various parameters were determined.
Results: The follicular density in porcine ear skin varies according to the area studied, and the length of most of the follicles was approximately 1458 ± 286 μm. The size of the follicular orifice was also determined in a total of 305 follicles. It showed a diameter of roughly 113 ± 43 μm.
Conclusion: The results showed a very good similarity between human and pig hair follicles. Therefore, porcine ear skin can be considered as a very suitable model of human skin in dermal and especially follicular penetration studies.
Keywords: hair follicle morphology; human skin; in vitro model; porcine ear skin.
© 2021 The Authors. Skin Research and Technology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.