The effect of various treatments on wet weight was also assessed. Wet weight is an indicator of edema as well as hyperproliferation, both markers of skin tumor promotion induced by TPA [41]. In Figure 4, lower panel, the wet weight of the WT skin in the vehicle only group was 10–13 mg whereas the wet weight in vehicle/TPA group comparatively was significantly

increased to 14–16 mg. The wet weight in the group treated with synthetic ACA/TPA was similar to the vehicle/TPA treated group without any significant changes in the wet weight of the skin. However, the wet weight of skin in the group treated with galanga extract/TPA was significantly decreased in comparison to the vehicle/TPA treated group. Furthermore, the wet weight of the skin in the FA/TPA treated group was also significantly reduced in comparison to the vehicle/TPA treated group. Interestingly, S3I-201 purchase the wet weight in the galanga extract/TPA group was significantly lower than the wet weight

in the synthetic ACA/TPA treated group. In Figure 5, lower panel, the wet weight in the vehicle only K5.Stat3C group was 14–15 mg, which was slightly higher than the wet weight observed in the WT group. In the vehicle/TPA treated K5.Stat3C group, the wet weight was significantly higher when compared to the vehicle only group. Yet again, the basal level of wet weight in this group was slightly higher in comparison to the WT group. The difference in the basal levels of the wet weight in the transgenic mice and their non-transgenic littermates were observed across KPT-8602 mouse all the treatment groups. In comparison check to the vehicle/TPA group, the wet weight was significantly lower in the galanga extract/TPA and FA/TPA treated groups but not in the synthetic ACA/TPA group. Moreover, the wet weight of skin in the galanga extract/TPA group was significantly lower in comparison to synthetic ACA/TPA treated group. This suggested that the test agents gave similar results

in the transgenic mice and their non-transgenic littermates, with the galanga extract being more effective than synthetic ACA. FA was once again found to be effective in decreasing the wet weight of the skin. To address the effects of the various treatments on the potential molecular target, Stat3, semiquantitative Western blot analysis for the expression of Stat3 and its active form (i.e. phosphorylated form of Stat3 at tyrosine residue 705) was performed. Figure 6 shows a representative western blot for Stat3 expression. As per our expectations, the expression of Stat3 remained unchanged in all the WT treatment groups (Figure 6, middle panel). This was a consistent observation reported by several other researchers in the literature [8, 42]. Further, Figure 6, lower panel, shows the experimental data for Stat3 expression in the K5.Stat3C mice. Once again, there were no significant differences observed in the expression of the Stat3 protein itself by any of the treatments.