The Evolution of Our Soles
- Thread starter Canute
- Start date
There are a number of differences between the skin on a baby feet (and hands) and the rest of its body such as its thickness, lack of hair, and ridges (finger/foot prints).
Perhaps part of the answer to why the skin is thicker is found in the question, where do new skin cells come from? There are two possible sources; resident stem cells in the epidermis and the hair follicles, and both are quite likely to play a role. But since the palms and souls don’t have hair follicles they would depend on the resident stem cell in the epidermis. It is possible that the hair follicles in some why monitor the thickness of the skin, and since they are not present on the souls and palms these sites are thicker.
Other things to think about is that there might be a difference in the proportion of epidermis to dermis, quality of nerves and blood vessels thought I’ve had less luck finding anything about this.
Of course the question of why these sites don’t have hair follicles could come down to a genetic mutation. . .
:bugeye:
Perhaps part of the answer to why the skin is thicker is found in the question, where do new skin cells come from? There are two possible sources; resident stem cells in the epidermis and the hair follicles, and both are quite likely to play a role. But since the palms and souls don’t have hair follicles they would depend on the resident stem cell in the epidermis. It is possible that the hair follicles in some why monitor the thickness of the skin, and since they are not present on the souls and palms these sites are thicker.
Other things to think about is that there might be a difference in the proportion of epidermis to dermis, quality of nerves and blood vessels thought I’ve had less luck finding anything about this.
Of course the question of why these sites don’t have hair follicles could come down to a genetic mutation. . .
:bugeye:
Proteomics covers the mapping of all proteins and how they interact, if we map all interactions (possible 10^20+ possible interactions, so this is not going to be finished for a long time!) we will know how everything works since the proteins do everything (with minor exception, also we will need to map all types of carbohydrate chains, Lipids and sterols, but since the proteins make those they come first.)