Figure 3.

Comparison of mRANTES expression in skin subjected to topical treatment with shikonin, or gene transfection with mRANTES cDNA expression vector. Mouse abdominal skin was treated with vehicle or shikonin (100 μg/site/mice), or transfected with an empty vector (pVector) or mRANTES cDNA plasmid (pRANTES) via gene gun bombardment delivery. At the indicated time points, mRNA and protein samples were extracted and expression of mRANTES was analyzed by RT-PCR and ELISA: (a) mRNA expression; (b) statistic data obtained from (a); (c) protein expression.*P <0.05, when compared with indicated vehicle treatment at 12 hours; #, P <0.05, between indicated treatments. Error bars indicate SD. The results are representative of three independently performed experiments.