Diversity analysis of gut microbiota between healthy controls and those with atopic dermatitis in a Chinese population

Abstract

An increasing body of evidence suggests that gut microbiota is involved in atopic dermatitis (AD). We aimed to use high‐throughput sequencing to characterize the differences in the composition of the gut microbiota between healthy controls and patients with AD. Fecal samples from 93 volunteers were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing, including 44 patients with AD and 49 healthy control subjects, aged 6–22 years. Our data show that the operational taxonomic unit composition in patients with AD had greater component similarity than the healthy controls. Patients with AD had a lower alpha diversity than healthy control subjects. The relative abundance of Porphyromonadaceae, Blautia, Parabacteroides, Bacteroides ovatus, Bacteroides uniformis and Prevotella stercorea was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in patients with AD than healthy control subjects. Clostridium and P. stercorea were higher (P < 0.05) in healthy control subjects compared with patients with AD. The results of linear discriminant analysis effect size show that Bacteroidaceae and Porphyromonadaceae can act as possible biomarkers associated with diagnosis of AD. However, this needs further experimental verification. Taken together, these results demonstrate the changes in microbiota composition in AD compared with a healthy control group, opening the way to future diagnosis or intervention studies.

Changes in Gut Microbiota of Patients with Atopic Dermatitis During Balneotherapy

“…13 Depending on the studies, Bifidobacteria were either increased 13,18 or decreased 10,13,19 in AD patients. The same contradictory results were observed with Clostridia, 16,20,21 while Lactobacilli were mostly found decreased.- 13,18 Other studies reported that AD gut microbiome showed higher abundance of Clostridioides difficile, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. 10 In this study, we used shotgun metagenomics to evaluate gut microbiota changes during BT, and how it is connected with the improvement of the pathology observed after BT (SCORAD).…”

“…10 In attempting to characterize the gut microbiota of patients with AD, observational studies, considering especially infants or children, used various techniques (mainly 16S rRNA sequencing, but also qPCR or cultivation) and reported sometimes-contradictory results. 13 Gut microbiota diversity was either decreased in patients with AD, [14][15][16] increased, 17 or without any difference. 13 Most studies focused mainly on Bifidobacteria, Clostridia and Lactobacilli.…”

Manipulating Microbiota to Treat Atopic Dermatitis: Functions and Therapies

“…Various studies demonstrated that AD is associated with gut dysbiosis, especially during early life (Table 2). AD patients display poor gut microbial diversity in several clinical trials [130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138], while contradictory results exist [139][140][141][142]. Similarly, to the skin, AD patients exhibit abundant S. aureus in their gut microbiota [143][144][145][146].…”

The role of gut microbiome in inflammatory skin disorders: a systematic review

“…Even though ten reports stated there were non-significant differences in the bacterial families between healthy and AD, [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] four articles support significant low abundance diversity in AD gut microbiome (Table 2). [33][34][35][36] The subjects of all the papers ranged from infants, toddlers, and children. Pregnant women as subjects were excluded from this review.…”

“…However, their increased presence has been associated with food allergies and other atopic manifestations. 27,[35][36][37][38] Indeed, higher levels of Bacteroides in atopy could lead to the continuous production of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), the major component of the gram-negative cell wall, in the gut, which could trigger an inflammatory response. Moreover, Bacteroides species were reported to alter gut permeability.…”