DNFB-Induced Atopic Dermatitis in Mice

The experimental animal ethics committee of the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine approved all experiments. Female Balb/C mice were randomly divided into four groups: the normal control group (Ctrl), AD model group (AD), AD + AESS group (AESS), and AD + dexamethasone group (DEX), with six mice in each group. The backs of the mice were shaved and sensitized using 150 μL of 0.15% 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB; Sigma, USA; dissolved in acetone and olive oil at 3:1 as a matrix solution) on the dorsal back and 20 μL on the ears and alternately stimulated with 0.15% DNFB twice a week (Han et al., 2018 (link)). The mice in the Ctrl and AD groups, AESS group, and DEX group were intragastrically administered daily with normal saline, a crude drug dose of 14.27 g/kg AESS formula (according to the conversion of human clinical dosage; Zhao and Sun, 2010 (link)), and 1 mg/kg dexamethasone (Sigma, United States; Lee et al., 2019 (link)), respectively. The dermatitis score was calculated from the sum of the four indicators (Kim et al., 2013 (link)): erythema/bleeding, eschar/dryness, epidermis exfoliation/erosion, and edema. The severity of each was calculated using 0–3 points, where 0 = none, 1 = light, 2 = medium, and 3 = heavy.