Abstract: The paper studies the changes of sugar residues of complex sugar on the cell surface of normal fetal skin in 29 cases and adult skin in 23 cases by 17 lectins. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between the positive rates of lectin-receptors of fetal and adult epidermal cells for BSL-I, DBA, UEA-I, SJA, STL, WGA, DSL (P<0.05 or 0.01), between fetal and adult sebaceous glands for RCA-I, RCA-II, ECL (p<0.05) and between fetal and adult sweat glands for WGA, DSL, PHA-E, Con A (P<0.01). The result indicated that the sugar residues on cutaneous cell surface significant changes in the course Of differentiation and development of epidermis.

Key words: Skin, Receptors, lectin, Histochemistry