Lucky Rabbits
In some cultures, a rabbit’s foot is thought to confer good luck. Here, however, you’re looking a a sample of a rabbit’s skin. Researchers have learned a great deal about rabbit skin by examining images like this multicolored tapestry.
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In some cultures, a rabbit’s foot is thought to confer good luck. Here, however, you’re looking a a sample of a rabbit’s skin. Researchers have learned a great deal about rabbit skin by examining images like this multicolored tapestry.
What am I looking at?
This image is a stained cross section of rabbit skin viewed under polarized light. The hair follicles are not visible, but the hair itself is the purple structures with blue and yellow ribbing (1). The skin cells are red and yellow (2).
Biology in the background
Rabbits have very thin, delicate skin that is covered with a fine layer of fur. The epidermis (the skin’s outermost layer) is thought to be only two cells thick – much thinner than human skin. The fur contains two different types of hair: a soft undercoat, to insulate the rabbit from cold or heat, and a layer of coarse “guard hairs,” to help protect the skin from physical damage. Each hair follicle is surrounded by a bundle of muscles that can make the hair either lie flat or stand on end.
While their skin is fragile, rabbits have a much higher rate of skin cell turnover than humans do. This high proliferation rate helps rabbits replace damaged cells more quickly than other mammals, which means quick healing from a scratch or wound. Lucky rabbits!
Each of the hairs seen here is about 50 micrometers across, or roughly two-thirds the width of a human hair.
Technique
This image was created using polarized light and a form of light microscopy called darkfield illumination.
Michael Peres, Rochester Institute of Technology