3.5 Oral administration of β-damascone ameliorates contact hypersensitivity in mice
Finally, we investigated whether β-damascone, which inhibits DC-mediated inflammation in in vitro experiments, exhibits a biologically significant effect on immunorelated diseases by using CHS model mice (Figure 5A ). First, we examined the effects of various doses of β-damascone on ear swelling symptoms in DNFB-treated mice and found that oral administration of β-damascone at 10 or 50 mg/kg per day from 2 days before sensitization suppressed ear swelling (data not shown). Under optimized doses, the suppressive effect of β-damascone on ear swelling was observed not only after challenge but also after rechallenge (Figure 5B ), accompanied by a tendency of reduced mRNA levels of Il6 in the lesional skin (data not shown). These results indicate that orally administered β-damascone modulates DC-induced immunoresponses in vivo .