Exacerbated skin inflammation and ulceration in mice treated with combination of PDGF-BB + bleomycin.

<p>(A) Outline of experimental design. Intradermal injection of saline, PDGF-BB alone, bleomycin alone, or PDGF-BB + bleomycin were performed daily for 21 consecutive days on female mice at 8 weeks of age. (B) Representative photographs of skin lesions on backs of treated mice. Frequency of ulceration was calculated based on visual examination of H&E stained tissue sections. (C) Representative skin section of treated mice stained by H&E, trichrome, anti-CD31, or anti-IBA-1 immunohistochemistry (scale bar, 500 μm). (D-G) Quantification of dermal thickness (D), percent area CD31 (E) or percent area IBA-1 (F) immunoreactivity, or total collagen (E) as determined by image analysis as described in the methods. Data is representative of at least two experiments with at least 5 mice/group/experiment. *<i>P</i> < 0.05, **<i>P</i> < 0.01, ***<i>P</i> < 0.001, versus saline or between bracketed comparisons shown (student’s <i>t</i> test).