Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 9 pp 3728—3756

Figure 1. Naked mole-rat (NMR) skin histomorphology. (A–C) HE, Sirius Red and Masson’s Trichrome staining photomicrographs on sections of middle-aged and young NMR back skin. Histograms in A and B show the epidermal and dermal thickness (μm) of middle-aged and young NMR back skin. Scale bar = 50 or 100 μm. Bars: SEM. *represents differences between the age groups. ****p≤0.0001 in Student’s t-test. n=4 animals per group. (D–M) Hyaluronic acid, Collagen I, Keratin-14 (Krt14), Keratin-10 (Krt10), Loricrin (Lor), Filaggrin, Laminin-5, ITGB4, Ki67and p16 staining photomicrographs on sections of middle-aged and young NMR back skin. Cells were stained with either Alexa 546 or Alexa 488 fluorochromes. For hyaluronic acid, cells were stained with 3,3’-diaminobenzidine. Negative controls were performed in parallel with the samples substituting the primary antibody with the equivalent isotype. Histograms show the quantification of Krt14 and Krt10 expressions and Ki67+ cells per surface in both age group. Scale bar = 50 or 100 μm. Bars: SEM. A Mann–Whitney U test was used for Keratin-14 / Keratin-10 quantification and a Student’s t-test was used for Ki67+ cells quantification. n=4 animals per group.