ABSTRACT
The skin is a complex tissue with a variety of components (Figure 2), including the epidermis, epidermal appendages such as sebaceous glands and hair follicles, and the dermis. In the rat only the skin of feet, mouth and snout are free of fur, and in albino rats although melanocytes are present in the skin the pigment melanin is totally absent. The development and structure of the skin in the albino rat has been described in detail by English and Munger (1994). Disorders in other tissues can be associated with changes in the skin, but skin lesions are generally less common in the rat than in humans.
