The Establishment Of The Alopecia Areata Animal Model Induced By Imiquimod With C3H/HeJ Mice And Its Pathogenesis

Objective: To study the feasibility of the alopecia areata animal model induced by imiquimod with C3H/HeJ mice, and evaluate the similarity between this animal model and the mankind's alopecia areata. The potential mechanism of imiquimod how to induce this animal model is also studied.Methods: 76 C3H/HeJ mice were divided into 11 groups. To the five experimental groups, the imiquimod was administrated on different skin regions or inequality time cell to the mice. Meanwhile, the vacant vehiculum, the different concentration IFN-γintravenous injection or subcutaneous injection, and whitout any disposal were administrated to the mice of the six control groups. After a period, the induction effection was observed. The appearance feature, clinical process and histologic characteristics of these lesion were also compared by us to evaluate the similarity of the animal model and the mankind's. In order to approach the mechanism of imiquimod how to induce this animal model, we also undertook the experiment of anti CD4, CD8 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and IFN-γmRNA in situ hybridization (ISH). Rusults: The imiquimod external use can excellently induced the alopecia areata animal model of C3H/HeJ mice. Especially, the administration methoed of three times per week on nuchal region is the best, with the highest achievement ratio and the least inductive phase. The characteristics of this animal model and the mankind's are similar in the appearance feature, the clinical process and histologic characteristics. The aggregation of CD4+T, CD8+T cell and the high expression of IFN-γmRNA were also observed in the lesion after imiquimod administration.Conclusions: The imiquimod can be used to induce the alopecia areata animal model of C3H/HeJ mice. Compared with the others, this method has the merits of more convenient operation, higher achievement ratio and lower cost price. It also has the outstanding similarity to the mankind alopecia areata. The pathogenesis of imiquimod how to induce this animal model maybe concerned with the high expression of IFN-γmRNA and the aggregation of CD4+T, CD8+T cell in the peri-hair follicle, which were both induced by imiquimod.