Figure 7: Blocking the immunoproteasome reduces skin injury in mice.

(A-G) Age matched C57BL/6 mice were either shaved only (naïve) or tape stripped (tape) to provoke injury and injected i.p either with vehicle or PKS3053 at 50 mg/kg. 24 h later, skin biopsies were collected, stained and histology scores were evaluated (A-C) Representative images of Hematoxylin & Eosin-stained skin sections at a magnification of x10. Presence of blisters is indicated by ^ for intradermal bullae or by * for subepidermal cracks, of inflammation by blue arrows, spreading in the deeper adipose tissue forming abscesses (#) and of ulcerations is represented by square bracket for large areas of disepithelization or by black arrow for micro regions of epidermal loss in (A) control mice that have been shaven only, (B) tape stripped mice injected with vehicle, (C) tape stripped mice injected with PKS3053, (D-G) Average histology parameters scored from 0– 3 in 4 skin sections of naïve (open circle, n=10), tape + vehicle (grey bar, n=12) or tape+ PKS3053 (n=7) for (D) Dermal blister score (E) Degree of adipose tissue inflammation (F) Ulcer score (G) Total score represented as the average sum of the three histology parameters. Histology scores are represented as a mean ± SEM from two independent experiments for each group and statistical significance was evaluated using a Mann-Whitney U-test and *p≤0.05; **p≤0.01; ***p≤0.001.