Skin Networks

Skin is pretty amazing. It is our largest organ, accounting for about 15% of our body weight. It protects our insides from the outside world, cools us off, and keeps us warm. To keep it intact, the body uses a complex network of support.

Learn more

Skin Networks

What am I looking at?

This is a section of embryonic skin from a mouse. Blood vessels are stained yellow (1) and lymphatic vessels are stained blue (2).

Biology in the background

You have an incredible number of blood vessels in your skin. In fact, if you lined up all the blood vessels in the skin of an adult human end to end, they would stretch for about 11 miles. Not only do these blood vessels bring nutrients to the skin, but they also help your skin regulate your body temperature. If you are cold, your blood vessels contract to limit the amount of blood that is near the surface of your skin, in turn limiting the amount of body heat that is lost from the skin’s surface. On the other hand, if you are warm, the blood vessels in your skin expand to increase the amount of blood flow near the skin’s surface, allowing heat to radiate into the environment, thus cooling you off.

The lymphatic system in your skin works together with the blood vessels to keep your skin functioning properly. The lymphatic system is responsible for clearing bacteria, viruses, and toxins absorbed by the skin from the environment. This prevents a buildup of these foreign elements that, if left unchecked, can cause conditions like acne, a loss of elasticity in the skin, and skin infections.

Capillaries in the skin of a mouse can be as small as 5 micrometers wide, or roughly 15 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Lymphatic vessels in the skin of a mouse can be as small as 20 micrometers wide, or roughly four times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

This image was created using confocal microscopy.