Abstract:
Abstract
Objective: Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) has recently attracted interest in biomedical research due to its
exceptional longevity, cancer resistance and tolerance to potentially harmful conditions or stimuli. Given its unique
attributes, this study was designed to characterize infammatory skin reactions of this animal to topical application of
imiquimod, a toll-like receptor 7 and 8 agonist that triggers psoriasis-like skin reaction.
Results: Imiquimod did not cause the expected psoriasis-like skin changes. There was no epidermal thickening and a
straight epidermo-dermal boundary was maintained. There was no parakeratosis and the granular layer of epidermis
was well formed. In the dermis, there was no leukocyte infltration. This points to an exceptional nature of infammatory/immune responses of this animal, but the mechanism could not be explained by our results. Naked mole rat
could be a valuable negative model for studying psoriasis and other infammatory skin conditions but as a prerequisite, there is need for further investigations to establish the mechanisms behind its lack of response to imiquimod
