A 7‐Day Mouse Model to Assess Protection from Sulfur Mustard (SM) Skin Injury

Localization of substance P gene expression for evaluating protective countermeasures against sulfur mustard

“…Since inflammatory responses, such as vascular leakage, precede the histopathological damage, there is a potential for pharmacologic intervention. Studies evaluating the protective effects of drug treatments against SM-induced dermal injury have found that topical application of olvanil, indomethacin, or octyl homovanillamide have significantly reduced edema, histological damage, and pro-inflammatory gene expression (Babin et al, 2000;Casillas et al, 2000;Babin et al, 2003;Sabourin et al, 2003). Two of these drugs, olvanil and octyl homovanillamide, are structural analogs of capsaicin and share characteristics of vanilloid pharmacology by inhibiting cutaneous neurogenic inflammation.…”

Dermal Toxicity of Sulfur Mustard

“…Edema can be quantified by measuring 8-mm-diameter ear punch biopsy weights. This model has been used to screen many compounds and remains the most cost-effective live animal screen available (Casillas et al, 2000a,b;Dachir et al, 2002Dachir et al, , 2004aBabin et al, 2003;Casbohm et al, 2004;Sabourin et al, 2004;Wormser et al, 2004aWormser et al, ,b, 2005Kiser et al, 2005;Amitai et al, 2006;Dillman et al, 2006). These effects occur in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 39.4).…”

“…Capsaicin rapidly produces desensitization and interferes with the release of neuropeptides from sensory fibers (Campbell et al, 1993). Pretreatment of skin with vanilloids before SM exposure was shown to significantly reduce edema formation (Babin et al, 2000(Babin et al, , 2003Casillas et al, 2000a,b;Sabourin et al, 2003). Capsaicin and its structural analogs, known collectively as vanilloids, have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity, as demonstrated by inhibition of edema, mast cell degranulation, and leukocyte migration (Brand et al, 1990;Bunker et al, 1991).…”