The changes in skin microbiota are associated with disease progression in patients with atopic dermatitis

ZHOU Huijie; ZHANG Dalei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8468.2025.09.006

Abstract：Objective To investigate the relationship between the severity of atopic dermatitis,and the composition and function of the skin microbiome.Methods A total of 130 patients with atopic dermatitis who were treated in our hospital from July 2021 to July 2024 were selected.The microbial specimens from the lesion-involved area were included in the observation group,while the specimens from the unaffected skin area of the flexor of the forearm served as the controls.The changes in microbial flora and α diversity were compared between the two groups.Additionally,the patients were divided into mild group(46 cases),moderate group(60 cases),and severe group(24 cases)based on the Atopic Dermatitis Score Index(SCORAD),and the α diversity of the skin microbial flora of the three groups was analyzed.The Pearson correlation was used to ana-lyze the correlation between the α diversity of the skin microbial flora and the severity of the atopic dermatitis.The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)was used to predict the func-tional pathways of skin microorganisms.Results The observation group and the control group shared a total of 625 operational taxonomic units(OTUs).The observation group had a total of 987 OTUs,with 362 being unique,while the control group had a total of 686 OTUs,with 61 being unique.Compared with the control group,the relative abundance of the Pseudomonadales in the observation group was significantly lower(t=18.96,P＜0.05),while the relative abundance of the Bacillales was significantly higher(t=21.32,P＜0.05).Compared with the control group,the ace index,chao index,and simpson index were higher,while the shannon index was lower in the observation group(P＜0.001).The ace index,chao index,and simpson index of the mild group were lower than those of the moderate group,while the shannon index was higher than that of the moderate group.The ace index,chao index,and simpson index of the moderate group were lower than those of the severe group,while the shannon index was higher than that of the severe group(P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that the ace index,chao index,shannon index,and simpson index were significantly correlated with the severity of the disease(P＜0.05).KEGG pathway analysis showed that the skin microbial functional genes in patients with atopic dermatitis were mainly related to carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism.Conclusion The diversity of the skin microbiota in atopic dermatitis-involved area differs from that in the uninvolved skin area,and the changes in the skin microbiota are associated with the disease progression.