Project description:Two patients with alopecia areata were treated with systemic ruxolitinib. Skin biopsies were taken before starting treatment and 12 weeks after starting treatment. We used microarrays to assess changes in gene expression of affected skin before and after starting treatment Two patients with alopecia areata were recruited for our study. Skin biopsies of affected scalp were taken prior to starting treatment with oral ruxolinitib. Additional skin biopsies were taken 12 weeks after starting treatment. Scalp skin biopsies were taken from patients without alopecia areata for comparison. RNA was extracted, cDNA libraries were made and profiled on affymetrix microarray chips.
Project description:This goal of these studies were to examine gene expression profiles of skin from patients with alopecia areata undergoing treatment with oral ruxoltinib. Microarray analysis was performed to assess changes in gene expression in affected scalp skin.
Project description:When faced with clinical symptoms of scarring alopecia – the standard diagnostic pathway involves a scalp biopsy which is an invasive and expensive procedure. Furthermore, clinical activity of scarring alopecias is often difficult to assess as symptoms of permanent damage and signs of activity can overlap or be difficult to distinguish. Here we report that gene expression analysis of only a small number of hair follicles (HF) plucked from lesional areas of the scalp is sufficient to characterise chronic discoid lupus erythematosus (CDLE). Lesional and non-lesional HFs were extracted from the scalp of patients with CDLE, psoriasis and healthy controls. The expression profile from CDLE HFs coincides with published profiles of CDLE from skin biopsy and was consistent with histopathological diagnostic features of CDLE. We therefore propose that information obtained from this non-invasive approach are sufficient to diagnose scalp LE.
Project description:EGFR/MEK inhibitor therapy induces a distinct inflammatory hair follicle response that includes a collapse of hair follicle immune privilege and differential modulation of IL-33 and IL-37 expression. Our findings suggest that successful future management of EGFRi/MEKi-induced folliculitis requires restoration of hair follicle immune privilege. In this RNAseq parietal scalp (rather than truncal skin) biopsies were taken from long-term (3-9 months) EGFRi-treated patients exhibiting folliculitis (Chronic-EGFRi) or from patients prior to commencing and after two weeks of EGFRi therapy (Acute-EGFRi), compared to normal scalp skin.
Project description:Scalp psoriasis shows a variable clinical spectrum and in many cases poses a great therapeutic challenge. However, it remains unknown whether the immune response of scalp psoriasis differs from understood pathomechanisms of psoriasis on other skin areas. We sought to determine the cellular and mollecular phenotype of scalp psoriasis by performing a comparative analysis of scalp vs skin using lesional and nonlesional samples from 20 Caucasian subjects with untreated moderate to severe psoriasis and significant scalp involvement, and 10 control subjects without psoriasis. Our results suggest that even in the scalp psoriasis is a disease of the inter-follicular skin. The immune mechanisms that mediate scalp psoriasis were found to be similar to those involved in skin psoriasis. However, the magnitude of dysregulation, number of differentially expressed genes, and enrichment of the psoriatic genomic fingerprinting were more prominent in skin lesions. Furthermore, the scalp transcriptome showed increased modulation of several gene-sets, particularly those induced by interferon-gamma, compared with skin psoriasis which was mainly associated with activation of TNFâµ/L-17/IL-22-induced keratinocyte response genes. We also detected differences in expression of gene-sets involving negative regulation, epigenetic regulation, epidermal differentiation, and dendritic cell or Th1/Th17/Th22-related T-cell processes. To define the transcriptomic profile of scalp skin, punch biopsies (6 mm diameter) were obtained from 20 Caucasian patients with untreated moderate to severe psoriasis with significative scalp involvement and 10 control subjects without psoriasis (N). Lesional (LS) samples were isolated from the infiltrated border of a plaque of psoriasis. Non lesional (NL) samples were taken from scalp areas with no visible psoriasis between the infiltrated plaques.
Project description:Scalp psoriasis shows a variable clinical spectrum and in many cases poses a great therapeutic challenge. However, it remains unknown whether the immune response of scalp psoriasis differs from understood pathomechanisms of psoriasis on other skin areas. We sought to determine the cellular and mollecular phenotype of scalp psoriasis by performing a comparative analysis of scalp vs skin using lesional and nonlesional samples from 20 Caucasian subjects with untreated moderate to severe psoriasis and significant scalp involvement, and 10 control subjects without psoriasis. Our results suggest that even in the scalp psoriasis is a disease of the inter-follicular skin. The immune mechanisms that mediate scalp psoriasis were found to be similar to those involved in skin psoriasis. However, the magnitude of dysregulation, number of differentially expressed genes, and enrichment of the psoriatic genomic fingerprinting were more prominent in skin lesions. Furthermore, the scalp transcriptome showed increased modulation of several gene-sets, particularly those induced by interferon-gamma, compared with skin psoriasis which was mainly associated with activation of TNF↵/L-17/IL-22-induced keratinocyte response genes. We also detected differences in expression of gene-sets involving negative regulation, epigenetic regulation, epidermal differentiation, and dendritic cell or Th1/Th17/Th22-related T-cell processes.
Project description:Our goal was to develop a transcriptomic description of affected alopecic scalp skin from patients with alopecia areata. 5 biological replicates of skin samples from 5 separate AA patients compared with 5 similar scalp samples from healthy control patients
Project description:Gene expression profiling of scalp skin biopsies from patients with alopecia areata or normal healthy controls Scalp skin punch biopsies were taken from the indicated patients and stored in PAXgene tissue containers for shipping to a central location, where the samples were processed
Project description:The aim of this pilot study was to combine standard clinical diagnostics with RNA and protein analyses from non-invasively obtained material. In 6 male volunteers with AGA, Norwood-Hamilton stage IIIv-IV, we performed global photography, phototrichogram, pH and sebum measurements, as well as skin surface cytokine measurements on AGA-affected frontal and vertex scalp skin compared to clinically unaffected occiput.