A simplified bacterial community found within the epidermis than at the epidermal surface of atopic dermatitis patients and healthy controls

Christopher J. Barnes*, Maria Asplund, Maja-Lisa Clausen, Linett Rasmussen, Caroline Meyer Olesen, Yasemin Topal Yüksel, Paal Skytt Andersen, Thomas Litman, Kim Holmstrøm, Lene Bay, Blaine Gabriel Fritz, Thomas Bjarnsholt, Tove Agner, Anders Johannes Hansen

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

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Abstract

There has been considerable research into the understanding of the healthy skin microbiome. Similarly, there is also a considerable body of research into whether specific microbes contribute to skin disorders, with atopic dermatitis (AD) routinely linked to increased Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonisation. In this study, the epidermal surface of participants was sampled using swabs, while serial tape-stripping (35 tapes) was performed to sample through the stratum corneum. Samples were taken from AD patients and healthy controls, and the bacterial communities were profiled by metabarcoding the universal V3-V4 16S rRNA region. Results show that the majority of bacterial richness is located within the outermost layers of the stratum corneum, however there were many taxa that were found almost exclusively at the very outermost layer of the epidermis. We therefore hypothesise that tape-stripping can be performed to investigate the ‘core microbiome’ of participants by removing environmental contaminants. Interestingly, significant community variation between AD patients and healthy controls was only observable at the epidermal surface, yet a number of individual taxa were found to consistently differ with AD status across the entire epidermis (i.e. both the epidermal surface and within the epidermis). Sampling strategy could therefore be tailored dependent on the hypothesis, with sampling for forensic applications best performed using surface swabs and outer tapes, while profiling sub-surface communities may better reflect host genome and immunological status.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer273
TidsskriftBMC Microbiology
Vol/bind23
Antal sider12
ISSN1471-2180
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
TB, PSA, TL, AJH and TA were responsible for funding acquisition. Sampling collection and laboratory work was performed by CMO, YTY, LR, KH, MA, LB and BGF. Data analysis was performed by KH, MA and CJB. All authors contributed the conceptualisation of this work and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Funding Information:
Thor Bech Johannesen of the Statens Serum Institut (Denmark) for his thoughtful discussions into data analysis.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

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