Lichen Planopilaris: First Biopsy Layer Microbiota Inspection

July 2022 in “ PLOS ONE ”

Daniela Pinto, Francesco Maria Calabrese, Maria De Angelis, Giuseppe Celano, Giammaria Giuliani, Fabio Rinaldi

Lichen Planopilaris scalp Microbacteriaceae IL-23 mRNA inflammation metabolic pathways volatile organic metabolites 4-Terpinenol Ionene

TLDR The study concluded that people with Lichen Planopilaris have a more diverse scalp bacteria and different metabolic pathways compared to healthy individuals.

The study "Lichen Planopilaris: The first biopsy layer microbiota inspection" involved 27 subjects and investigated the microbial community in Lichen Planopilaris (LPP), a lymphatic disease affecting the scalp. The researchers found that LPP samples had higher bacterial diversity compared to healthy samples, with significant differences in three bacterial taxa at the phylum level. The Microbacteriaceae family was found to be negatively correlated with IL-23 mRNA expression, suggesting a connection to inflammation in LPP. The study also identified 32 metabolic pathways that differed significantly between healthy and LPP samples, and two volatile organic metabolites (VOMs), 4-Terpinenol and Ionene, were found in higher amounts in LPP samples. The study concluded that bacterial community composition and relative richness are subject to dramatic alterations in the scalp of LPP patients, but noted that further research is needed due to the small sample size.

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