Histological Assessment of Skin Morphology

To detect epidermal thickness, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and morphological variations, sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E, Bio-Optica, Milano, Italy). Histological analyses were performed as previously described [40 (link)]. Portions of dorsal skin samples were quickly removed and fixed with 10% buffered formalin for at least 24 h at room temperature. After dehydration in graded ethanol and xylene, samples were embedded in paraffin and sectioned at 7 μm thickness. After the staining procedure, sections were observed by an optical microscope (Axostar Plus equipped with Axio-Cam MRc, Zeiss). The histological results were shown at 10× (100 μm of the Bar scale). All the histological analyses were executed in a blinded manner.