2.2 Experimental sketch
BALB/c mice (8-10 weeks, 20-22 g) used in this study were gained from
SPF (Beijing) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. All animal experiments were in
accordance with the relevant provisions and obtained the approvement
from The Animal Experiment Committee of Fudan University (Shanghai,
China). The mice were shaved a smooth area of 2 x 3 cm at the back.
Meanwhile, every mouse could acquire enough food and water during
experiment. Their living environment was also dry and comfortable. We
randomly divided the mice into four groups: 1) control (CON, N=4); 2)
imiquimod (IMQ, n=4) treated; 3) methotrexate (MTX, a clinical drug to
treat psoriasis, n=4,) treated; 4) curcumin treated group (CUR, n=4).
Except the CTR group mice, other groups mice were treated topically with
a daily dose of 62.5 mg imiquimod cream every day. The psoriasis-like
model was built after continuous 6 days. MTX treated mice and
CUR-treated mice were treated for the intragastric application with MTX
(1.0 mg/kg· d) and curcumin (100 mg/kg· d), applied
after 1 day of imiquimod treatment. MTX and CUR were dissolved and
diluted by clean and distilled water. After killed all the mice, the
back skin and intestinal feces were collected for further processing.