Full-thickness burns were induced as described previously [20,21]. Briefly, under inhalation anesthesia, the dorsal skin of mice was exposed to a heated (100 C) circular metal plate (20 mm in diameter) for 5 s. The mice were resuscitated immediately with an intraperitoneal injection of 0.05 ml/g body weight of saline. At 5 min after burn (the usual time interval between the exposure of the fire and the death in fire fatality cases), mice were sacrificed by deep anesthesia, and surrounding areas of burned skin (within 2 mm from the edge of burned area) were collected. As a postmortem burn model, the dorsal skin of other mice was exposed to the heated metal plate for 5 s at 15 min after being sacrificed by deep anesthesia, and skin samples were collected. Control skin was collected from non-burned mice (n = 4 in each group). The skin samples were immersed in RNA Later (Perkin–Elmer Applied Biosystems, Foster City, USA) and stored at 80 C for the extraction of RNA. A part of each sample was fixed in 4% formaldehyde buffered with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.2) for histopathological analyses.