Figure 4. Topical Apigenin Stimulates Lamellar Body Production in Normal Mouse Epidermis, Paralleled by Increase ABCA12 mRNA Expression in Cultured Human Keratinocytes.

Skin biopsies from both vehicle- and apigenin-treated mice were taken for electron microscopy and processed as described in Materials and Methods. Fig. 4a and b display the density of lamellar bodies (see arrows) in vehicle-(a) or apigenin (b)-treated epidermis. Fig. 4c quantitatively displays changes in lamellar body density in vehicle- and apigenin-treated epidermis. Fig. 4d exhibits changes in the levels of ABCA12 mRNA expression after addition of apigenin (10 µM) to cultured keratinocytes growing under differentiating conditions (1.2 mM calcium). Magnification bars, numbers (N) and significant differences are indicated in the figures.