During a routine physical examination, you notice that your patient, a 35-year-old avid surfer, has spots of abnormal pigmentation on two of her fingers. You explain to your patient that long-term exposure to the sun increases the risk of neoplastic changes and that you would like to perform biopsies to verify the nature of the abnormal pigmentation. Referring to following figure, cells from which layer of the epidermis are most vulnerable to neoplastic changes due to long-term exposure to the sun?

Answer(s): D
Explanation:
Long-term exposure to the sun increases the risk of alteration of the DNA structure by cleavage, ionizing radiation, or recombination of DNA with highly reactive free radicals. These changes can result in neoplastic changes or death in skin cells. In the skin, mitosis occurs only in the malpighian layer formed by the stratum basale and the stratum spinosum of the epidermis. The DNA of dividing cells is more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the sun, and neoplastic changes are usually observed in the Malpighian layer. They are not seen in the stratum corneum (choice A), stratum lucidum (choice B), or stratum granulosum (choice C). Choice E represents the dermis located below the epidermis, which is the only skin layer considered in this question.
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