Heterogeneity across skin sites in atopic dermatitis / 中华皮肤科杂志

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a highly heterogeneous skin disease. The subtypes of AD classified by age, severity and inflammatory patterns have been widely accepted previously; however, the heterogeneity in skin lesions across different body sites has been rarely addressed. Most recently, it has been found that the efficacy of dupilumab varies across different body sites, suggesting different patterns of inflammation in skin lesions at different body sites. Thus, this article proposes the concept of heterogeneity across body sites in AD, summarizes cell biological features and microbiome at different skin sites under physiological conditions, analyzes clinical manifestations of, multi-omic study results from and treatment response of AD at different sites, and discusses pathogenesis of AD, providing a basis for individualized therapy of AD.

Identification of Molecular Signatures in Mild Intrinsic Atopic Dermatitis by Bioinformatics Analysis

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is recognized as a common inflammatory skin disease and frequently occurred in Asian and Black individuals.OBJECTIVE: Since the limitation of dataset associated with human severe AD, this study aimed to screen potential novel biomarkers involved in mild AD.METHODS: Expression profile data (GSE75890) were obtained from the database of Gene Expression Omnibus. Using limma package, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between samples from AD and healthy control were selected. Furthermore, function analysis was conducted. Meanwhile, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and transcription factor (TF)-miRNA-target regulatory network were constructed. And quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the expressions patterns of key genes.RESULTS: In total, 285 DEGs including 214 upregulated and 71 downregulated genes were identified between samples from two groups. The upregulated DEGs were mainly involved in nine pathways, such as hematopoietic cell lineage, pertussis, p53 signaling pathway, staphylococcus aureus infection, and cell cycle, while tight junction was the only pathway enriched by the downregulated DEGs. Cyclin B (CCNB)1, CCNB2, cyclin A (CCNA)2, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand (CXCL)10, and CXCL9 were key nodes in PPI network. The TF-miRNA-target gene regulatory network focused on miRNAs such as miR-106b, miR-106a, and miR-17, TFs such as nuclear factor kappa B subunit 1, RELA proto-oncogene, Sp1 transcription factor, and genes such as matrix metallopeptidase 9, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma , and serpin family E member 1. Moreover, the upregulation of these genes, including CCNB1, CCNB2, CCNA2, CXCL10, and CXCL9 were confirmed by qRT-PCR.CONCLUSION: CCNB1, CCNB2, CCNA2, and CXCL9 might be novel markers of mild AD. miR-106b and miR-17 may involve in regulation of immune response in AD patients.

Effects of sirolimus on ultraviolet B irradiation-induced premature senescence of skin fibroblasts / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To observe the effect of sirolimus,an autophagy enhancer,on premature senescence in fibroblasts induced by repeated exposure to a subtoxic dose of ultraviolet B (UVB).Methods Skin fibroblasts from foreskin tissue of healthy adolescents were classified into six groups:control group cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagles' medium (DMEM) containing 1％ calf serum,UVB group receiving UVB irradiation only,sirolimus group treated with sirolimus of 10 mg/L (added after daily exchange of culture medium),and three combined groups receiving UVB irradiation immediately followed by overnight treatment with sirolimus of 0.1,1.0 and 10.0 mg/L respectively.UVB irradiation was given at a dose of 10 mJ/cm2 once a day for five successive days.After five days of treatment,cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to evaluate cell viability,β-galactosidase staining to detect senescent ceils,Western blot to quantify the expressions of p53,LC3-B and beclin 1 in these fibroblasts.Autophagy level was determined by acridine orange staining followed by fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.Data were processed by the SPSS 16.0 software,and statistical analysis was done by one-way analysis of variance,t test and least significance difference.Results Sirolimus significantly increased the proliferative activity of fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner,with the absorbance value at 450 nm being 0.27 ± 0.02,0.36 ± 0.04 and 0.39 ± 0.04 for fibroblasts irradiated with UVB followed by treatment with sirolimus of 0.1,1.0 and 10 mg/L respectively,compared to 0.26 + 0.01 for fibroblasts irradiated with UVB only (all P ＜ 0.05).Significant differences were also observed between the fibroblasts irradiated with UVB followed by treatment with sirolimus of 0.1,1.0 and 10 mg/L and those irradiated with UVB only in the percentage of β-galactosidasepositive fibroblasts (92.50％ ± 0.34％,42.40％ ± 0.53％ and 6.20％ ± 0.39％ vs.95.10％ ± 0.32％,all P ＜ 0.05)and intracellular intensity of acridine orange-induced fluorescence (36.43 ± 0.24,45.25 ± 0.33 and 48.69 ± 0.37 vs.33.99 ± 0.32,all P ＜ 0.05).Moreover,the expressions of p53,LC3-B and beclin 1 in the three combined groups differed significantly from those in the UVB group (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Sirolimus can inhibit UVBinduced premature senescence likely via upregulation of autophagy in fibroblasts.

Influence of palmitic acid on the proliferation of and production of inflammatory mediators by a human keratinocyte line HaCaT / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To estimate the influence of palmitic acid (PA) on the proliferation of and production of inflammatory mediators by a human keratinocyte line HaCaT.Methods Cultured HaCaT cells were treated with PA of eight concentrations (0-200 μmol/L) for 3-24 hours followed by the evaluation of cell proliferation by using the cell counting kit-8.According to the proliferation assay,four concentrations (75,100,125,150 μmol/L) of PA were selected and used to treat HaCaT cells for 24 hours,then,fluorescence-based immunohistochemical staining was performed to observe the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65,enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the level of interleukin (IL)-6 in the supernatant of culture medium,real-time PCR to detect the mRNA expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor oα (PPARα) and IL-6,and Western blot to quantify the protein expressions of PPARα as well as total and nuclear NF-κB p65.Those HaCaT cells receiving no treatment served as the control group.Statistical analysis was carried out by one-factor analysis of variance using the GraphPad Prism 5.0 software.Results The HaCaT cells treated with PA of 50-175 μ mol/L showed accelerated proliferation compared with the control HaCaT cells (all P ＜ 0.05).PA from 75 to 150 μmol/L enhanced the nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65,mRNA and protein expressions of PPARα,as well as the mRNA expression and supernatant level of IL-6 in a dose-dependent manner.The relative expression level of nuclear NF-κB p65 protein was 0.4536 ± 0.0173,0.5184 ± 0.0206,0.5333 ± 0.0231,0.6160 ± 0.0297,and the supernatant level of IL-6 was (31.5677 ± 0.2268),(32.3773 ± 0.4156),(32.9837 ± 0.0029) and (33.6890 ± 0.0936) ng/L,in HaCaT cells treated with PA of 75,100,125 and 150 μmol/L,respectively,compared to 0.3237 ± 0.0114 (all P ＜ 0.01) and (30.4577 ± 0.5131) ng/L (all P ＜ 0.01) in the control HaCaT cells,respectively.Conclusions PA can accelerate the proliferation of HaCaT cells,enhance NF-κB nuclear transfer,PPARα expression and IL-6 secretion in a dose-dependent manner within a certain concentration range,and may exert a promoting role in the activation and expression of some inflammatory factors.

Th17 in the Immunity Against Parasitic Infection / 中国寄生虫学与寄生虫病杂志

Th17 lymphocytes have been recently identified as a novel subset of CD4+ cells. It has been defined that IL-17,the main product of Th17, plays an important role in immunity against parasitic infection. There is a two-way influence between Th17 and cytokine network: on one hand Th17 consummates cytokine network, on the other hand many cytokines regulate Th17's activity in parasitic infection. In the anti-parasitic infection process, Th17 cells protect host or promote inflammation, even cause immune pathogenesis in different cases, which comprise host's immune state, the burden of parasitic infection, as well as the treatment.