Figure 1

Virtual section through the skin of a SSc patient (a) and of a healthy volunteer (b) at the height of the epidermal-dermal junction. The basal layer appears as bright circles (due to the strong reflection of melanosomes) around dermal papillae (*). These circles are surrounded by spinous layer (arrowhead), which exhibits a brighter aspect than the dermal tissue normally, but not so in the SSc patient due to fibrosis.