Abstract
Objectives: The morbidity of dry and itchy skin was high during a person’s lifetime and it had a significant negative impact. This study aimed to investigate the positive effect of silk fibroin moisturizing cream on dry skin pruritus induced by acetone/ether-water (AEW) method in mice. Method: We established a dry skin model in mice with AEW treatment, and the control group was treated with ultrapure water. The mice in AEW model group were locally administrated with silk fibroin moisturizing cream (SilkArmor)®. The transepidermal water loss (TEWL), scratching behavior, condition of skin erythema, skin histology (by hematoxylin-eosin staining) and the results of electron microscopy were measured to evaluate the positive effect of SilkArmor on dry and itchy skin in mice. Results: The TEWL value, spontaneous scratching behavior and erythema score were significantly increased after AEW modeling compared with the control group. There was no significant difference in the TEWL value, scratching behavior and erythema score between the SilkArmor group and the control group (P > 0.05). Compared with the AEW group, the value of TEWL, scratching behavior and the erythema score of mice in the AEW + SilkArmor group were improved, with statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). Skin histopathology and electron microscopy also showed that SilkArmor had certain improvement and repairment on AEW-induced skin pathological changes. Conclusions: A dry skin model was successfully established in this experiment, showing that SilkArmor brought an obvious alleviation to AEW-induced dry and itchy skin in mice.
Highlights
Pruritus is a common unpleasant sensation and a characteristic feature of various skin diseases, which has significant negative impacts on the quality of patients’ life [1] [2]
This study aimed to investigate the positive effect of silk fibroin moisturizing cream on dry skin pruritus induced by acetone/ether-water (AEW) method in mice
AEW was used to establish the model of dry skin pruritus in mice
Summary
Pruritus is a common unpleasant sensation and a characteristic feature of various skin diseases, which has significant negative impacts on the quality of patients’ life [1] [2]. Dry skin, which is associated with incomplete cuticle and disrupted epidermal barrier, could be one of the triggering factors of pruritus [7]. Moisturizers can reduce skin moisture loss and repair epidermal dysfunction. Silk fibroin can increase the moisture content of the cuticle, promote the synthesis of collagen and repair the barrier dysfunction of the skin epidermis, which results in relieving dry and itchy skin [10]. We successfully established an acetone/ether-water (AEW) model on ICR mice to induce dry and itchy skin. We aimed at evaluating the positive effect of SilkArmor on AEW-induced dry and itchy skin by measuring the transepidermal water loss (TEWL), scratching behavior, skin erythema, skin histology and the results of electron microscopy
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