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Skin penetration of nanoparticles is a recent research area in focus for the aim of development of topical nanoparticulate delivery systems as well as for health risk analysis. So far, monitoring skin penetration of nanoparticles is mostly based on qualitative microscopical examinat ...

The development of animal models of HPV infection has given investigators a new set of tools to expand basic knowledge of the early events of infection in vivo. The use of HPV pseudovirions, in which the viral genome has been replaced with a reporter pseudogenome, in combination with advanced imagi ...

Recently, our group and others found that cancer and inflammation can induce the expansion of the lymphatic vasculature (lymphangiogenesis) in draining lymph nodes in experimental animal models and in cancer patients (Hirakawa et al., J Exp Med 201:1089–1099, 2005; Qian et al., Cancer Res 66: ...

Langerhans cells (LCs) are intraepidermal dendritic cells that extend their dendrites between keratinocytes to form a dense network that covers the entire body. The mammalian epidermis has two diffusion barriers, the stratum corneum and tight junctions (TJs). In their resting state, L ...

Cryo-electron tomography of vitreous sections is currently the only method for visualizing the eukaryotic ultrastructure at close to native state with molecular resolution. Here, we describe the detailed procedure of how to prepare suitable vitreous sections from mammalian skin ...

The progress of molecular genetics helps clinicians to prove or exclude a suspected diagnosis for a vast and yet increasing number of genodermatoses. This leads to precise genetic counselling, prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic haplotyping for many inherited skin con ...

Spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing (SMaRT) is a tool that facilitates the recombination of two distinct pre-mRNA molecules. Its application for gene therapeutic purposes has been hindered by laborious procedures to identify gene-specific molecules. We have establish ...

Autoimmune bullous diseases are the best-characterized autoimmune skin diseases. Molecular diagnosis of these diseases has become possible due to the identification of their target autoantigens over the past three decades. In this review, we summarize methodology for categori ...

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is a clinically heterogeneous heritable skin fragility disorder characterized by mechanically induced mucocutaneous blistering. On the molecular level DEB is caused by mutations leading to deficiency in collagen VII (CVII), a large ext ...

Heritable skin diseases represent a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations due to mutations in ∼500 different genes. A number of model systems have been developed to advance our understanding of the pathomechanisms of genodermatoses. Zebrafish (Danio rerio), a freshwater verte ...

Tissue macrophages and inflammatory neutrophils represent important cells of the innate immune system responsible for various important tasks, i.e., elimination of pathogens and/or granuloma formation. Isolation of large numbers of primary phagocytes is vital for research wi ...

Using cutaneous leishmaniasis of mice, the existence of so-called T helper (Th) cells type 1 and type 2 had been identified more than 20 years ago. Nowadays, it is well accepted that additional T cell populations as well as B cell-mediated immunity is required for immunity against Leishmania major. F ...

Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA) is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering disease caused by an autoreactive response against collagen VII, the major constituent of the anchoring fibrils at the epidermal basement membrane. The pathogenic relevance of collagen VII-spec ...

Passive transfer of IgG into neonatal mice is a potential method of reproducing antibody-mediated blistering skin diseases. The major autoantigen for bullous pemphigoid is collagen XVII (COL17)/BP180, which is an epidermal linker transmembrane protein. A single intraperitone ...

We have recently developed a method for RNAi-mediated gene function analysis in skin (Beronja et al., Nat Med 16:821–827, 2010). It employs ultrasound-guided in utero microinjections of lentivirus into the amniotic cavity of embryonic day 9 mice, which result in rapid, efficient, and stable tr ...

Recent advances in reprogramming somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer the possibility of developing new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including inherited skin disorders. While the ultimate goal is the use of iPSCs in the tr ...

Contact hypersensitivity (CHS) in the mouse model is a standard method to assess delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses in the skin induced by low molecular weight chemicals that in humans cause contact dermatitis. These responses are clinically important and present as eczem ...

This protocol describes the generation of a skin humanized mouse model for psoriasis using bioengineering approaches. This method is relatively simple, highly reproducible and ensures the obtention of a large and homogenous number of engrafted animals bearing a portion of human skin w ...

Groundbreaking advances on the molecular and cellular physiological and physiopathological skin processes, including the complete sequencing of the genome of several species and the increased availability of gene-modified organisms, paved the way to firmly establishing m ...

Skin fibrosis is involved in several pathologies as hypertrophic scar or scleroderma. The determination of the mechanisms at the origin of these problems is however difficult due to the low number of in vivo models. To bypass this absence of animal models, studies typically use human patholog ...