Inflammation mediates lung cancer-induced increase in the epidermal green autofluorescence of mice

Abstract

Skins autofluorescence (AF) holds great promise for non-invasive diagnosis of diseases. Our previous study has indicated that keratin-based skins AF holds great promise to become a novel biomarker for diagnosis of multiple major diseases, including lung cancer, acute ischemic stroke, Parkinsons diseases, stable coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. It is critical to investigate the mechanisms underlying the increased skins AF of the patients. Our previous study has shown that development of lung cancer can induce increased skins green AF of mice, while the mechanisms underlying the increased AF have remained unclear. We hypothesized that the inflammation in the mice with lung cancer is causative to the increased AF. Our study found that the anti-inflammation drug indomethacin virtually abolished the lung cancer-induced increase in the skins green AF. We further found that the AF was originated from the epidermis of the mice. Our findings have provided critical information for understanding the mechanisms underlying the lung cancer-induced increase in the epidermal green AF, indicating that at least for lung cancer, the disease-induced increase in the skins AF mainly results from increased inflammation in the body.