Microbiome dysbiosis is associated with disease duration and increased inflammatory gene expression in systemic sclerosis skin.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Infectious agents have long been postulated to be disease triggers for systemic sclerosis (SSc), but a definitive link has not been found. Metagenomic analyses of high-throughput data allows for the unbiased identification of potential microbiome pathogens in skin biopsies of SSc patients and allows insight into the relationship with host gene expression.

Methods

We examined skin biopsies from a diverse cohort of 23 SSc patients (including lesional forearm and non-lesional back samples) by RNA-seq. Metagenomic filtering and annotation was performed using the Integrated Metagenomic Sequencing Analysis (IMSA). Associations between microbiome composition and gene expression were analyzed using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA).

Results

We fin

SUBMITTER: Johnson ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6366065 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature