Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces increased epidermal green autofluorescence of mouse

Our recent studies have suggested that characteristic ‘Pattern of Autofluorescence (AF)’ of each disease could be a novel biomarker for non-invasive diagnosis of multiple major diseases such as acute ischemic stroke. It is necessary to determine if increased epidermal green AF may be produced by major pathological factors such as inflammation. In our current study, we used C57BL/6Slac mice exposed to LPS to test our hypothesis that inflammation may induce increased epidermal green AF: LPS rapidly induced significant increases in the epidermal green AF of the mice’s ears at 1 hr after LPS injection. LPS also dose-dependently increased the epidermal green AF. The AF intensity had a linear relationship with the LPS dosages at both 3 and 7 days after the LPS administration. The AF images exhibited the characteristic structure of the keratinocytes in Stratum Spinosum , suggesting that the origin of the increased AF was keratin 1 and/or keratin 10. Collectively, our current study has provided the first evidence indicating that inflammation can rapidly and dose-dependently induce increased epidermal green AF, suggesting that the green AF may be the first biomarker for non-invasive and rapid detection of systemic inflammation. Since inflammation is a key pathological factor of numerous diseases, our finding has highlighted the value of the epidermal AF as a novel diagnostic biomarker for numerous diseases.