Abstract: Objective To establish the mouse model of sclerotic skin. Methods The sclerotic skin was induced by local injections of bleomycin (BLM) in C3H and BALB/c mice. The injection solution was prepared with BLM at the concentration of 200μg/mL in PBS. In the test group 0.1 mL BLM solution was injected daily into the back of the mice for 3 weeks. For the control mice same amount of PBS was injected daily for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, the histology of the skin and lungs was compared between the different groups, also the changes of skin thickness and quantity of collagen. Results After the treatment of BLM sclerotic skin was observed in both C3H and BALB/c mice, in which the thickness of skin and the quantity of collagen (6 mm×6 mm) were higher than those in the control mice (P<0.01). The study showed that in C3H mice the BLM-induced skin changes were more prominent than those in BALB/c mice (P<0.05) and the induction period of sclerotic skin was shorter. Conclusions The mouse model of sclerotic skin could be established by injection of BLM within several weeks. The C3H mouse is more sensitive to the induction by BLM, which indicates that C3H mouse may be a better animal model for the induction of sclerotic skin.

Key words: Scleroderma, circumscribed, Bleomycin, Mice, inbred C3H, Mice, inbred BALB c, Models, animal