Stat3C) and their wild-type (WT) counter parts Poziotinib chemical structure were used. K5.Stat3C mice express Stat3C, a constitutively active form of Stat3 and develop spontaneous lesions that resemble human psoriasis [11]. The expression of the Stat3C transgene in the basal cell layer of the selleck chemicals epidermis was driven by the bovine keratin 5 gene promoter, and hence the name K5.Stat3C. The mice were genotyped by PCR to detect the transgene and maintained in the breeding colony at LSUHSC-Shreveport. Effects of ACA, galanga extract, and FA on mouse epidermis following two weeks treatment with TPA in WT vs. K5.Stat3C mice The dorsal

skin of each mouse was shaved two days prior to the treatments. At 2 days post shaving, topical applications of respective treatments were Selleckchem BVD-523 administered on the dorsal surface of the mouse with the aid of a pipette, according to the two-week protocol reported previously for short-term tumor promoter experiments [8]. The mice were treated twice weekly for

two weeks as follows; treatment with either acetone vehicle, synthetic ACA (340 nmol), galanga extract (equivalent of 340 nmol ACA) or FA (2.2 nmol), followed by treatment with TPA (3.4 nmol). Mice were sacrificed 48 h after the last treatment application and tissues were harvested for further experimental analysis. The dorsal skin from the mice was excised and divided into three parts; one for wet weight analysis, one for histological analysis, and one for western blot analysis. For wet weight analysis, the underlying fat layer was dissected from one of the skin pieces and two holes were punched into the excised skin, one towards the rostral end and the other towards the caudal end. The punched biopsies Phosphoprotein phosphatase were then placed into vials and weighed on an analytical balance (AG135, Mettler-Toledo, Inc., Columbus, OH). The weights of the biopsies obtained from the rostral and caudal end were then averaged for each individual mouse and recorded. For histological analysis, one piece of skin was placed in 10% neutral buffered formalin, and at 24 hrs post fixation transferred into 50% ethanol and embedded in paraffin. The tissue sections were sliced crossectionally at

a thickness of 4 μm. Duplicate histology sections were stained with hemotoxylin and eosin for histopathological analysis. Epidermal thickness was measured using the hematoxylin and eosin stained histology slides. Digital images of the histology slides were captured using a Nikon Eclipse TE300 inverted microscope with an epi-fluorescence attachment. This was attached to Photometrics CoolSNAPfx monochrome 12-bit CCD camera and configured with imaging Software: IPLab 3.7 for Windows (Research Core Facility, LSUHSC). The procedure for measuring epidermal thickness reported by Li, Wheeler and colleagues was followed with slight modifications [39]. Digital pictures of 10 randomly selected fields were taken at 400X magnification. The sections were scored in a blinded fashion such that the slides only had a numerical identity.