Journal of Clinical & Experimental Dermatology Research
Open Access

Abstract

Skin Elasticity in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: Rheological and Histological Analysis

Nabila Assoul, Camille Ozil, Romain Bosc, Mickael Hivelin, Mustapha Zidi and Laurent Lantieri

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) also known as von Recklinghausen’s disease, is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by benign tumors called neurofibromas. It is a serious disease, often overlooked. Indeed, people with NF1 have a lower life expectancy, because some of them develop malignant tumors and for many, there is deterioration in their life quality.

In the absence of medical treatment, only surgery is in place for now. However, the problem of neurofibromatosis surgery is that it is potentially very hemorrhagic and neurofibroma skin elasticity seems recurrent after few years.

The aim of this study was to evaluate structure alterations in NF1 skin. At First, mechanical tests that were performed on pathological and control samples have led to the identification of elasticity parameter in traction; then, a comparative histological study was carried out on healthy and pathological skin samples.

Twenty one samples were analysed in uniaxial traction to obtain stiffness coefficient. The mechanical results show that a neurofibromatosis skin is at least four times less elastic than a healthy skin. Histology of the skin samples showed reduced cellularity of pathological samples compared to healthy ones. In addition, the NF1 skin elastin rate is twice lower compared to the healthy one.

This work is part of the understanding of the structure of skin NF1. Although preliminary, this study enables to evaluate a rheological parameter and to correlate it to micro-constituents skin changes.