Oral Administration of Olive Oil may Exacerbate Imiquimod‐Induced Skin Inflammation in Mice

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by thick and erythematosus cutaneous plates, which leads to patient disfiguration and incapacitation and does not have cure. Oral administration of functional foods with antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory proprieties, as olive oil, could have beneficial effects in development of psoriasis. Thus, our hypothesis is that olive oil may attenuate inflammatory response and oxidative damage induced by psoriasis decreasing the development of psoriasiform plates. This study investigated if oral administration of olive oil could attenuate imiquimod‐induced skin inflammation in mice. Experiments with animals were approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Use of State University of Rio de Janeiro (CEUA/045‐046/2016). To induce the psoriasis, dorsum skin of adult male BALB/c mice was topically treated with cream containing 5% of imiquimod for 6 days. The dorsum skin of control animals was treated with vaseline. The imiquimod‐induced skin inflammation is macroscopically, microscopically and molecularly to resemble psoriasiform plates in human. Concomitant to imiquimod or vaseline administration, some imiquimod or control‐treated animals were orally treated with 1.5g/kg of olive oil or water. The formation of erythema, scales and thickness in psoriasiform plates was macroscopically evaluated during all experiment. After 7 days of the beginning of imiquimod administration, animals' dorsum was collected and formalin‐fixed, and sections were stained with hematoxylin‐eosin to measure the thickness of epidermis. Olive oil did not alter macroscopically the formation of scattered red and scaly plaques induced by imiquimod in skin dorsum of mice compared to control (vaseline+water) after 7 days. However, olive oil potentiated the increase in the epidermis thickness induced by imiquimod when compared to control (vaseline+water) after 7 days. In conclusion, oral administration of olive oil may exacerbate the development of imiquimod‐induced skin inflammation in mice. Support or Funding Information CNPq (402582/2016‐0) and FAPERJ (E‐26/203.192/2017) This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .