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INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Significant Changes in the Skin Microbiome in Patients with Chronic
Plaque Psoriasis after Treatment with Narrowband Ultraviolet B
Malin ASSARSSON 1 , Albert DUVETORP 1 , Olaf DIENUS 2 , Jan SÖDERMAN 2,3# and Oliver SEIFERT 1,3#
1
Division of Dermatology and Venereology, 2 Division of Medical Diagnostics, Region Jönköping County, Jönköping, and 3 Division of Cell
Biology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
#
These authors contributed equally to this work and are shared last author.
Changes in the skin microbiome have been shown to
promote cutaneous inflammation. The skin microbio-
me of patients with chronic plaque type psoriasis was
analysed before and after treatment with narrowband
ultraviolet B (UVB). Swab samples of the microbiome
were taken from lesional and non-lesional skin of 26
patients. Microbiotas were characterized by sequencing
16S rRNA bacterial genes on the Illumina MiSeq plat-
form. Lesional skin microbiome diversity correlated with
psoriasis severity (measured with the Psoriasis Area
and Severity Index; PASI). There was a significantly lo-
wer abundance of the phylum Firmicutes and the genus
Staphylococcus in lesional skin compared with non-le-
sional skin before UVB treatment. Responders (> 75%
target Psoriasis Severity Index (PSI) improvement) had
significantly lower abundance of the phyla Firmicutes in
lesional and non-lesional skin and lower abundance of
the genera Staphylococcus, Finegoldia, Anaerococcus,
Peptoniphilus, Gardnerella, Prevotella and Clostridium
in lesional skin after UVB treatment. Pseudomonas sig-
nificantly decreased in lesional and non-lesional skin of
treatment responders. These results suggest that skin
microbiome alterations after UVB treatment could be
related to treatment and treatment response.
Key words: psoriasis; microbiome; UVB treatment.
Accepted Nov 29, 2017; Epub ahead o