The accelerated aging skin in rhino-like SHJH^hr mice

SHJH^hr mice line is rhino-like mice with a nonsense Hairless (Hr) mutant, which shows the characteristic of shedding hair and wrinkled skin with increasing age. Through histological analysis and aging indexes detection, SHJH^hr mice show an increased thickness skin with degraded hair follicle and dermal cysts and disorganized collagen fibres, as well as decreased level of Hyp. Meanwhile, the aging markers p16 and p21 are significantly higher in SHJH^hr mouse skin than ICR mouse skin at same age. Moreover, the data of MDA and SOD show a higher oxidative stress in SHJH^hr mouse skin, and the levels of Nrf2 and its targets are significantly downregulated, which suggests SHJH^hr mice have a faster aging skin and its reason maybe poor antioxidative protection. Overall, this study shows SHJH^hr mice with an accelerated aging skin, which suggests the role of Hr gene in skin aging.