Abstract
Knowledge of skin anatomy and function is fundamental for understanding the clinical manifestations and impacts of skin diseases. While true for any organ, this is especially true for the skin, because clinicians can see, touch, and otherwise interrogate the anatomy of this organ directly. Importantly, skin diseases result from deleterious agents or processes that disrupt specific anatomic components of the skin, and induce physiological responses that distort it, to create skin lesions. Recognition of skin lesion significance, and thus diseases, is based upon identifying alterations in normal skin anatomy, including the particular anatomical components that are targeted. Furthermore, the impacts of skin diseases and treatment choices are understood through knowledge of normal skin functions and the consequences of its dysfunction. This chapter reviews basic aspects of feline skin structure and function, with citations from the literature where available, and draws heavily on the comparative information available for humans and dogs.
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Linder, K.E. (2020). Structure and Function of the Skin. In: Noli, C., Colombo, S. (eds) Feline Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29836-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29836-4_1
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