INNERVATION AND VASCULATURE OF HUMAN SWEAT GLANDS - AN IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY LASER-SCANNING CONFOCAL FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY STUDY

Secreting tubules, nerves fibers, and blood vessels in human sweat gla nds (SGs) were fluorescently stained by immunohistochemical and lectin methods for examination with a laser scanning confocal microscope (LS CM). Using these techniques, the three-dimensional distribution of up to three substances within a single specimen was investigated by colle cting a series of optical sections for each of three fluorophores. Eac h SG received several nerve fibers. These branched into delicate bands of one or more axons that ran longitudinal to the sweat tubule then e ncircled the tubule. A heavy complement of capillaries was interwoven among the sweat tubules. Sweat ducts were accompanied from the SG towa rd the skin surface by one or two longitudinally oriented nerve fibers and capillaries. Immunoreactive staining of nerves was heaviest with protein gene product 9.5 antibody, but triple labeling showed that imm unoreactivity to calcitonin gene-related peptide, vasoactive intestina l polypeptide, and synaptophysin was also present in the same axons. S ubstance P-immunoreactive axons were sparse in SGs but were present in other areas of the skin. The techniques used have considerable potent ial in examination of human skin biopsies for diagnosis of disorders a ffecting the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.