Human nails are relatively large and easy to evaluate clinically.
The human nail is flattened dorsoventrally. Histologically the nail unit consists of a proximal nail fold, nail matrix, nail bed, and hyponychium. However, at the histologic level the mouse nail is remarkably similar to the human nail, with all of the same structures. We developed simple methods to evaluate the very small nails of mice. These include evaluation and photography with a dissection microscope for large scale screening, processing the right front and rear feet for scanning electron microscopy after glutaraldehyde fixation, and processing the left feet for sagital histologic sectioning after formalin fixation.