Dermal morphological changes following salicylic acid peeling and microdermabrasion

Summary

Background

Microdermabrasion and chemical peeling are popular, inexpensive, and safe methods for treatment of some skin disorders and to rejuvenate skin.

Objectives

To study the alterations of the dermal connective tissue following salicylic acid peeling and microdermabrasion.

Methods

Twenty patients were participated in our study. All participants underwent facial salicylic acid 30% peel or microdermabrasion (10 cases in each group) weekly for 6 weeks. Punch biopsies were obtained from the clinically normal skin of the right postauricular region 1 week before treatment (control group). Other punch skin biopsies were obtained 1 week after the end of the treatments from the left postauricular area. This region was treated in a similar way to the adjacent lesional skin (treated group). We used routine histological techniques (H&E stain), special stains (Masson trichrome and orcein stains), and image analyzer to study the alterations of the dermal connective tissues.

Results

Our study demonstrates variations in the morphological changes between the control and the treated groups, and between chemical peels and microdermabrasion. Both salicylic acid 30% and microdermabrasion were associated with thickened epidermal layer, shallow dermal papillae, dense collagen, and elastic fibers. There was a significant increase among those treated sites vs control regarding epidermal thickness and collagen thickness. Also, there was a highly statistically significant increase among those treated with salicylic acid vs microdermabrasion regarding the epidermal, collagen, and elastin thickness.

Conclusions

Both methods stimulate the repair process. The mechanisms underlying these variations are open for further investigations.

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