Predominance of right-handed spirals in human eccrine sweat ducts

Abstract

The direction of winding and the regularities in form and arrangement of the intraepidermal portion of the eccrine sweat ducts were studied in horizontal skin slices. Right-handed spirals definitely prevailed over left-handed and deformed. spirals in the sweat ducts in the skin on the pad of fingers and toes of 28 Japanese and 3 whites regardless of sex and side of the body. The predominance of right-handed spirals was shown to hold in the other regions of the palmar and plantar skin and, though to a lesser extent, in the general body skin. The sweat ducts in the skin on the volar surface of the hand and foot were in the form of fairly regular cylindrical spirals. In a small area of the skin, their girth and pitch were fairly constant and their axes were nearly parallel to each other and, therefore, inclined toward the skin surface with an approximately uniform angle. The sweat ducts in the eponychium were shaped like straightened spirals, wound oftener right-handedly. © 1955, PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.