The isolation of human sebaceous glands and apocrine sweat glands by shearing.

A new method of isolating human sebaceous and apocrine sweat glands by the repeated dissection of skin biopsies with scissors is described. The success of the technique is attributed to a line of weakness between the investing capsule and the surrounding connective tissue which parts under shear forces. The glands are judged to be viable by: (i) light and electron microscopy; (ii) ATP, ADP and AMP contents of 148.8 +/- 30.3, 30.6 +/- 4.7 and 14.9 +/- 4.7 pmol (mean +/- s.e.m.) for sebaceous glands and 310.2 +/- 34.1, 90.35 +/- 16.3 and 40.1 +/- 11.8 pmol (mean +/- s.e.m.) for apocrine sweat glands, which gave energy charges of 0.84 and 0.81, respectively; and (iii) a rate of sebaceous gland lipogenesis of 39.7 +/- 3.7 pmol glucose incorporated into lipid/gland/h (mean +/- s.e.m.).