Fig. 6

Shikimic acid facilitates wound healing and enhances dermal reconstruction in the artificial human skin ex-vivo model. a Representative fluorescent immuno-histologic staining of cytokeratin (green) in the epidermis and cell nucleus (blue) in the basement membrane and collagen (red) in the dermis from human skin equivalent tissue. Tissue was frozen in OCT and stained by the immunofluorescence method. Data are representative of N = 3. Scale bar = 10 μm. b The dermal layers were seeded with 3 different fibroblasts: Non-treated fibroblast (control), fibroblast treated with shikimic acid, or fibroblast treated with shikimic acid plus MyD88 inhibitor. Keratinocytes were seeded over the dermal layer. This skin equivalent was cultured in the air-liquid interface for 8 days. On 8 days, the paraffin sections were stained for hematoxylin and eosin (scale bar = 50 μm). c The quantification of epidermal thickness (N = 3 in each group compared with control HDF, p < 0.001 or p < 0.007). d SG-callus extract (36.25 mM shikimic acid) increased the expression level of β1 integrin and α6 integrin that are stem cell markers at the basal layer of the epidermis. It also increased collagen amounts in the dermis (brown color in immunostaining) (scale bar = 100 μm). e N = 8, treated group compared with vehicle cream treated group, ***p < 0.001. ED, epidermis; D, dermis