The Protective Effects of Ultraviolet A1 Irradiation on Spontaneous Lupus Erythematosus-Like Skin Lesions in MRL/lpr Mice
Figure 6
TUNEL assay for the analysis of apoptotic cells in the skin of MRL/lpr mice. (a), (b), (c): nonlesional skin of nonirradiated mice. (d), (e), (f): spontaneous LE-like skin lesion of nonirradiated mice. (g), (h), (i): nonlesional skin of UVA1-irradiated (10 J/c) mice. Positive cells for TUNEL assay are shown in green, whereas the nuclei are labeled with Hoechst 33342 in blue. In the nonlesional skin of the UVA1-irradiated (10 J/c) mice, TUNEL-positive cells were scattered in the dermis (g), (i). However, TUNEL-positive cells were rarely seen in the dermis of the nonlesional skin of the nonirradiated mice (a), (c). In the LE-like skin lesions, TUNEL-positive cells were diffusely detected in the hypertrophic epidermis, whereas in the dermis TUNEL-positive cells were hardly seen (d), (f). (a), (d), (g): TUNEL assay, (b), (e), (h): nuclear staining, (c), (f), (i): merged images of TUNEL assay and nuclear staining images, original magnification, ).
