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Review
. 2020 Jun 9;100(12):adv00164.
doi: 10.2340/00015555-3514.

Skin Microbiome in Atopic Dermatitis

Sofie M Edslev  1 , Tove Agner, Paal S Andersen
Affiliations
Review

Skin Microbiome in Atopic Dermatitis

Sofie M Edslev et al. Acta Derm Venereol. .

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis is a common inflammatory skin disease with a complex pathogenesis that includes imbalanced immune system signalling, impaired skin barrier and enhanced Staphylococcus aureus skin colonization. The skin bacterial communities are characterized by increasing abundance of S. aureus, leading to reduced diversity compared with the bacterial communities on healthy skin, and increasing disease severity. In contrast, fungal communities are richer and more diverse on the skin of patients with atopic dermatitis, although distribution of the most common species is similar in patients and controls. Filaggrin deficiency in atopic dermatitis skin might be related to the enhanced skin colonization by S. aureus. In addition, S. aureus expressing variant virulence factors have been shown to elicit atopic dermatitis-like phenotypes in mice, indicating that specific S. aureus strains can induce flare-ups. This review aims to provide an overview of the recent literature on the skin microbiome in atopic dermatitis.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; filaggrin; skin microbiome; atopic dermatitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Absolute abundances of bacteria in atopic dermatitis (AD) skin and healthy skin. Bacterial densities are significantly greater on AD lesional skin compared with healthy control skin, which mainly is due to significantly increased abundances of S. aureus in AD lesional skin. S. aureus absolute abundances are also increased in AD non-lesional skin, but not as much as in lesional skin.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Proposed connections between human factors involved in AD pathogenesis and S. aureus colonization and virulence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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