Figure 5.

Repression of ΔNp63 transgene expression rescues the dermatitis phenotype in transgenic animals. (a) Gross morphology showing amelioration of the AD skin lesions upon transgene repression. Four months after ΔNp63BG mice developed the AD skin lesions, animals were administered Dox to repress expression of the transgene. After 6 weeks of ΔNp63 transgene repression, ΔNp63BG showed no signs of the AD skin phenotype (ΔNp63BG Rescue). (b) Dorsal skin sections of ΔNp63BG Rescue (BG Rescue) and wild-type mice show similar expression patterns of the various terminal differentiation markers as well as similar Ki67 expression levels. (c) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of mRNA expression levels of genes known to promote Th2 responses, genes involved in IL31 signaling and genes involved in keratinocyte terminal differentiation reveals levels in ΔNp63BG rescue (BG-AD Rescue) skin to be similar to wild-type, as compared with ΔNp63BG (BG-AD Lesional). (d) Total serums IgE levels in wild-type (WT) (n=6), ΔNp63BG (BG) (n=6) and ΔNp63BG Rescue (Rescue) (n=6) were measured by ELISA. Data are represented as mean±S.E. *P<0.005, **P<0.0001, Student's t-test