Fig 2: The transgenic mice with keratinocyte-specific overexpression of WFDC12 (K14-WFDC12) were successfully constructed and the overexpression of WFDC12 did not affect the skin homeostasis and survival of mice.a The construction schematic diagram of K14-WFDC12 plasmid. b RT-PCR analysis was used to detect WFDC12 mRNA levels in WT and TG mice. c The western blot results of dorsal skins of WT and TG by using anti-HA. d ELISA was used to detect the protein expression of WFDC12 in the skin of WT and TG mice. e The toluidine blue staining of fetus mice. f TWEL determination in fetus rats. g Statistical chart of weight change during mouse growth. h Direct view of 8-week-old mice dorsal skin after shaving and H&E staining of paraffin sections in skin stable state. Scale bar: 200 μm. Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Asterisks indicate statistical significance based on unpaired or paired T-tests. ‘ns’ indicates no statistical difference.

Fig 3: WFDC12-overexpressing regulates the metabolic pathways of arachidonic acid lipoxygenase in the epidermis of modeled mice.a Volcano map of DEGs in WT-DNFB/ TG-DNFB. DEGs were more than 2 times and FDR ≤ 0.05. The abscissa represents the fold change of gene expression in each group. The ordinate represents the statistical difference in gene expression. Red dots and blue dots represent upregulated genes and downregulated genes in WT-DNFB/ TG-DNFB, respectively. Gray dots indicate the indifference genes. b Heatmaps showing the representative 30 DEGs in WT-DNFB/ TG-DNFB. c DEGs in TG-DNFB and WT-DNFB were clustered in the term of biological process. subcellular localization and molecular function. d KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis results. The results were arranged according to the p value from the smallest to the largest. and 10 items were selected for drawing. e The fold changes of DEGs were gathered in the AA pathway in DNFB-induced mice. f and g RT-PCR analysis of the relative expression of ALOX12 (f) and ALOX15 (g) in the epidermis of mice (n = 4 or 5). h and i ELISA analysis of 12-HETE (h) and 15-HETE (i) in the epidermis of mice (n = 4 or 5). Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Asterisks indicate statistical significance based on unpaired or paired T-test; **p < 0.01. ‘ns’ indicates no statistical difference.

Fig 4: WFDC12-overexpressing exacerbated DNFB-induced AD-like symptoms in mice.a Established scheme of DNFB-induced AD mouse model. b Dorsal skin lesions after 21 days of modeling. c Total scores of dorsal skin lesions after 21 days of modeling (n = 5). d The H&E staining representative figure in skin lesions. Scale bar. 200 μm. e Quantitative analysis of epidermal thickness. Five visual field measurements were randomly selected for each sample (n = 4). f Toluidine blue staining representative images. scale bar 100 μm; Arrows indicate mast cells. g Statistical results of mast cells. Five visual field measurements were randomly selected for each sample (n = 4 or 5). h ELISA was used to detect serum IgE (n = 4 or 5). Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Asterisks indicate statistical significance based on unpaired or paired T-test; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.001, ‘ns’ indicates no statistical difference.

Fig 5: WFDC12 was closely related to the occurrence and progression of AD.a The relative expression of WFDC12 in different tissues in normal people from GTEx database (n = 6–860) (huWFDC12, Human WFDC12). b Immunohistochemical staining of WFDC12 was performed in human normal skin (n = 3) and AD-lesion (n = 3). Scale bars: left figure. 200 μm; right figure. 100 μm. c The positive expression level of WFDC12 in immunohistochemistry staining. d RT-qPCR analysis of WFDC12 mRNA level in mouse normal skin (n = 4) and DNFB-induced skin lesions (n = 4). e The transcriptional level of WFDC12 in mouse normal skin (n = 6) and DNFB-induced skin lesions (n = 6) from GEO Datasets (GDS2820). Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Asterisks indicate statistical significance based on unpaired or paired T-test; **p < 0.01.