Figure 8.

SOCE inhibition prevents the development of LL-37-induced rosacea in mice. PBS (LL-37/Vehicle) or SKF treated (LL-37/SKF) BALB/c mice were injected with LL-37 into the dorsal skin (arrows) twice daily for two consecutive days. Mice that only received PBS on the dorsal skin were used as control. Representative pictures of (A) the dorsal skin and (B) H&E stained skin sections of mice from different cohorts are shown. Scale bar = 100 μm. (C,D) Graphs represent inflammation scores and epidermal thickness of the H&E stained skin sections. (E) Relative gene expression of selected gene targets from the excised skin was analyzed by real-time PCR. Values are plotted as 2^−ΔΔCt normalized to GAPDH levels. (F) Mice were treated with vehicle or SKF and exposed to a single dose of LL-37 in their hind skin. After 30 min of LL-37 injection, the skin tissues were harvested and paraffin embedded skin sections were stained with toludine blue. Representative pictures of the skin sections are shown. Bold arrows indicate intact mast cells whereas dotted arrows represent degranulated mast cells. The inset figure is an enlarged image of the cell(s) shown by the arrows. Scale bar = 50 μm. (G) Graph shows the percentage of degranulated mast cells in the skin tissue of different cohorts of mice. Data are mean ± S.E. from three to five experiments (n = 4–12 mice/group) Statistical significance was determined by Student's t-test. *p < 0.05.