title: Performance of skin ultrasound to measure skin involvement in different animal models of systemic sclerosis.
abstract: Animal models are widely used in systemic sclerosis (SSc) research. We set out to determine whether ultrasonography (US) could be used to assess skin fibrosis in two complementary SSc-models: the bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis model and the tight-skin 1 mouse model. Back skin thickness was measured using a high-frequency ultrasound dedicated to the small animal. There was no significant difference in dermal thickness measured by US between mice injected with bleomycin and those treated with NaCl. These results were inconsistent with histological analyses. Mean US hypodermal thickness was significantly higher in tight-skin 1 mice as compared with Pa/Pa control subgroup (p = 0.02). Histologic and US measures of dermal and hypodermal thicknesses in this model were well correlated (r = 0.79). The intra-observer concordance was 0.96 for hypodermal thickness. US is reliable and sensitive in detecting hypodermal thickening in the tight-skin 1 mouse model. Further larger studies are warranted to better determine the place of US in SSc-research.
authors: Paris Descartes University, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.
authors: Muriel
authors: M
authors: Elhai
authors: Jérôme Avouac
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: Marchiol
authors: Gilles
authors: G
authors: Renault
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Ruiz
authors: Maxime
authors: M
authors: Fréchet
authors: Gilles
authors: G
authors: Chiocchia
authors: Yannick
authors: Y
authors: Allanore
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000903:Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; D001761:Bleomycin; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012867:Skin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000187:drug effects; D013045:Species Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000903:Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; C475219:Tsk1 protein, mouse; D001761:Bleomycin; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases