Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) induction and phloretin treatment. The dorsal skin regions of the BALB/c mice (n = 5) from which the hair was removed were sensitized with 2% DNCB on day 1, followed by a series of repetitive challenges with 0.5% DNCB every third day thereafter. In addition, 50 and 100 mg/kg of phloretin were orally administered to the BALB/c mice daily from day 7 to day 28 before the mice were sacrificed 4 h after the last DNCB challenge. The pathological conditions caused by DNCB irritation with or without phloretin treatment were examined.