Treatment of Psoriasis-like Skin in Mice
A total of eight groups of BALB/c mice (male and female, 8-11 weeks,
20-25 g) were randomly selected (n = 6 per group) and purchased from
Vital River Laboratory Animal Technology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China),
containing normal control group (NC), IMQ group, vehicle control group,
allicin-low-dose group (AL, 1.7 mg/g, measured with alliin),
allicin-middle-dose group (AM, 3.4 mg/g, measured with alliin) and
allicin-high-dose group (AH, 5.0 mg/g, measured with alliin), positive
control groups, with the commonly
used first-line treatment for psoriasis, calcipotriol cream (15 g: 0.75
mg) or triamcinolone acetonide and econazole cream (TAE).
5cm2 of the back skin of mice was exposed by shaving
dorsal hair. A daily topical dose of 62.5 mg IMQ for inducing
psoriasis-like skin was provided at 9:00 a.m. for six consecutive days.
Then mice were treated with allicin
ointment twice, at an interval of four hours. Vehicle control mice were
topically treated with a blank allicin-free gel. The experiment was
terminated on the seventh day, following sacrifice of the mice, the back
skin was dissected rapidly and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and
stored at 80°C for subsequent analyses.