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.