Surface Area Measurements of Psoriatic Corneocytes: Effects of Intralesional Steroid Therapy

Quantitative measurements of surface areas of corneocytes from the desquamating portion of psoriatic lesions in 11 patients showed that psoriatic corneocytes were much smaller (27%) than corneocytes from noninvolved normal skin in the same patients. Corneocyte surface areas gradually increased in size following one intralesional injection of triamcinolone acetonide suspension and were almost normal approximately 6weeks after treatment.These findings support other observations suggesting that rapidly proliferating epidermal cells have smaller surface areas than normal cells