technically the topmost two layers of the epithelial epidermal layer of human skin- and especially the stratum corneum- shed continually throughout the day amounting to around 700 pounds of shed cells in a lifetime, when viewed under a scanning electron microscope the keratin "horny layer" or outermost layer has a distinctly scale like appearance.
the peeling of a sunburn is the shedding of an entire area of damaged skin cells from the same layer of division at the same time, more akin to what a snake would go through, though obviously not identical in any means
So humans and snakes both shed, it's just two different mechanisms of shedding due to the fact that the scaly plates on a snake are larger than individual cells....
this has me wondering what Pythia's human epithelial cells around the new snakeskin patches are doing, if the transitional area has developed a unique structure or if she's prone to an irritation inflammatory response or infection due to the disparate shedding cycles of mammalian and snake cells...something like a soup version of plaque psoriasis or eczema or contact dermatitis because her body is attempting to accommodate two different methods for the same goal. This also begs the question of whether the transitional area has normal epidermis which migrates under the scaled portions, if the two tissue areas are junctional or if the epidermis slightly overrides the scaled portion...because there could be other complications depending on whether or not it's a seamless transition...if she's got normal epidermis under the scales she might be prone to cyst development, or keratin pearls forming; if the scaled portion is under the epidermal or dermal layer she might get infections inflammation and pain much like what happens with ingrown nails; if its junctional she might be fine or she might develop skin fissures in certain areas especially if her human skin dries out...
sorry...geeking out over weird body systems stuff here, don't mind me!
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dancing_serpent
on skin shedding
Date: 2016-05-21 11:43 am (UTC)technically the topmost two layers of the epithelial epidermal layer of human skin- and especially the stratum corneum- shed continually throughout the day amounting to around 700 pounds of shed cells in a lifetime, when viewed under a scanning electron microscope the keratin "horny layer" or outermost layer has a distinctly scale like appearance.
the peeling of a sunburn is the shedding of an entire area of damaged skin cells from the same layer of division at the same time, more akin to what a snake would go through, though obviously not identical in any means
So humans and snakes both shed, it's just two different mechanisms of shedding due to the fact that the scaly plates on a snake are larger than individual cells....
this has me wondering what Pythia's human epithelial cells around the new snakeskin patches are doing, if the transitional area has developed a unique structure or if she's prone to an irritation inflammatory response or infection due to the disparate shedding cycles of mammalian and snake cells...something like a soup version of plaque psoriasis or eczema or contact dermatitis because her body is attempting to accommodate two different methods for the same goal. This also begs the question of whether the transitional area has normal epidermis which migrates under the scaled portions, if the two tissue areas are junctional or if the epidermis slightly overrides the scaled portion...because there could be other complications depending on whether or not it's a seamless transition...if she's got normal epidermis under the scales she might be prone to cyst development, or keratin pearls forming; if the scaled portion is under the epidermal or dermal layer she might get infections inflammation and pain much like what happens with ingrown nails; if its junctional she might be fine or she might develop skin fissures in certain areas especially if her human skin dries out...
sorry...geeking out over weird body systems stuff here, don't mind me!