Corneobiology and corneotherapy–a final chapter
The text obtained for this review from Professor Albert Kligman was drawn posthumously from a variety of notes that he had been planning to use to write a review on corneobiology and corneotherapy. It was a review that he had dearly hoped to complete –his final ‘magnum opus’ with reflections on the subject.
Corneobiology refers to that broad range of experimental studies that are focused on the anatomy, physiology and biology of the stratum corneum, centred particularly on the human horny layer that has features uniquely different from other mammals.
Corneobiology has a very broad reach, encompassing studies that deal with immunology, endocrinology, neurobiology and psychology,comprising a network of complex interactions that have connections to the central nervous system.
It has attracted the attention of a confederation of scientists from very different disciplines,including molecular biologists, anatomists, physiologists, pharmacologists, geneticists, psychologists and still others.
Corneotherapy refers to preventive interventions that are primarily directed to the correction and restoration of the stratum corneum barrier that has been rendered defective and impaired by disease, genetics and a variety of mechanical, physical, chemical and psychological exogenous insults and stresses.
Contributors to building the edifice, we now call corneobiology, are a motley, diverse crew of investigators, mainly situated in industry and academia from around the world.