1.Shown by the sagittal cryosta(?)-microsections

the epidermis of the adult mouse and rabbit skins consisted of 3—4 layers of cells

occupying about 40μ in thickness.When advancing a penetrating microelectrode from the surface of the ■pidermis vertically downward into its depth

the cell membrane potentials of these layers in series

being-4—-8my

-6—-20my

-12—-20mv

-12—-20mv

respectively

could be got.These potentials

in turn

could be used to mark the proper insertion of the electrode in cell of a desired layer.Beyond the depth of 40μ usually no membrane potential was met. 2.Microinjection of carboxyfluorescein (CoF) into cell in the first (sh- allowest) epidermal layer

no matter how long the injection time was

produced restricted dye transfer-only to 1 or 2 neighbor cells.Transfer to 3-5 neighbor cells would be seen in 15 min.after 7 min.of CoF injection into cell in the 2nd layer

and this number would slowly increased if the injection time was further prolonged.Similar CoF injection into cell in the 3rd or 4th (Malpighi) layer resulted in dye transfer to 20—40 neignbor cells.Most testing injections in this work have been done to cells in the 3rd epidermal layer. 3.A(?)though each of such injections produced detectable dye transfer only to a limited number of cells

each resulting fluorescence territory had two pro- minent characteristics:A.It did not have a sharp confining boundary

rather

the fluorescence fainted away smoothly over its periphery

suggesting the homo- geneous junctional communication (JC) capacity in this deep epidermal layer.B. It was not symmetrical in shape but often elongated in certain direction.This was due

in most cases

to the elongation of the cells in the direction

and sometimes

to more cells the dye had been transferrd to in that direction. 4.Relaying injection of CoF into cell in the fluorecent periphery of the dye-filled deep layer epidermal territory resulted from JC after the preceding injection always resulted in dye further transfer to more cells with the same favouring direction.247 such relaying injections in mouse skins

46 ones in rabbit skins all showed relayability without exception. 5.The relayable deep-layer-epidermal dye transfer on the line of the tra- ditional Liver meridian showed a favouring direction coinciding well with the meridian line.When the mice were treated with diethylnitrosamine (4×0.04 mg/g

i.p.)

JC was suppressed both in the livers and epidermis on the Liver meridians.It took 2-3 months for JC to recover to a certain degree

the far- ther the site from the liver the earlier and better the recovery. These results suggest:In deep layers of adult mammal epidermis exsists long range junctional communication that may involve in the mechanism by which the body meridians realize their long range conduction function for physiological regulation.