Skin Microbiome Modulates the Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Cellular Response and Immune Function

At birth, human infants are poised to survive in harsh, hostile conditions. An understanding of the state of newborn skin development and maturation is key to the maintenance of health, optimum response to injury, healing and disease. The observational study collected full-thickness newborn skin samples from 27 infants at surgery and compared them to skin samples from 43 adult sites protected from ultraviolet radiation exposure, as the standard for stable, mature skin. Transcriptomics profiling and gene set enrichment analysis were performed. Statistical analysis established over 25,000 differentially regulated probe sets, representing 10,647 distinct genes, in infant skin compared to adult skin. Gene set enrichment analysis showed a significant increase in 143 biological processes (adjusted p < 0.01) in infant skin, versus adult skin samples, including extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, cell adhesion, collagen fibril organization and fatty acid metabolic process. ECM organization and ECM structure organization were the biological processes in infant skin with the lowest adjusted P-value. Genes involving epidermal development, immune function, cell differentiation, and hair cycle were overexpressed in adults, representing 101 significantly enriched biological processes (adjusted p < 0.01). The processes with the highest significant difference were skin and epidermal development, e.g., keratinocyte differentiation, keratinization and cornification intermediate filament cytoskeleton organization and hair cycle. Enriched Gene Ontology (GO) biological processes also involved immune function, including antigen processing and presentation. When compared to ultraviolet radiation-protected adult skin, our results provide essential insight into infant skin and its ability to support the newborn’s preparedness to survive and flourish, despite the infant’s new environment laden with microbes, high oxygen tension and potential irritants. This fundamental knowledge is expected to guide strategies to protect and preserve the features of unperturbed, young skin.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Ultraviolet radiation, both UVA and UVB, influences the composition of the skin microbiome.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.734570834.793554185 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Robert Knobler

Keyword(s):

Ultraviolet Radiation ◽

Skin Microbiome

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Ultraviolet Radiation Affects the Immune System

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.71.1.129 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 71 (1) ◽

pp. 129-133

Author(s):

JOHN A. PARRISH

Keyword(s):

Immune System ◽

Ultraviolet Radiation ◽

Immune Function ◽

Antigen Processing ◽

Normal Skin ◽

Contact Sensitization ◽

Spleen Cells ◽

Nonionizing Radiation

Photoimmunology is the study of the effects of nonionizing radiation on normal and abnormal immune function. Photoimmunology is therefore an intersection of photobiology, dermatology, and immunology. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) definitely can affect the immune system. Scattered reports about effects of UVR on lymphocytes have been available for years, but it is only recently that systematic studies have shown that circulating and noncirculating components of the immune system can be selectively altered by ultraviolet radiation of intact normal skin. Effects are not confined to irradiated skin but are also systemic; for example, exposure of normal skin of animals to UVR inhibits contact sensitization of unexposed skin and diminished antigen processing by spleen cells.

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COMPARISON OF ALTERED EXPRESSION OF HISTOCOMPATIBILITY ANTIGENS WITH ALTERED IMMUNE FUNCTION IN MURINE SPLEEN CELLS TREATED WITH ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION AND/OR TPA

Transplantation Journal ◽

10.1097/00007890-198502000-00013 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 175-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

JUDITH O. PRETELL ◽

ROBERT E. CONE

Keyword(s):

Ultraviolet Radiation ◽

Immune Function ◽

Spleen Cells ◽

Histocompatibility Antigens ◽

Altered Expression ◽

Murine Spleen

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Effects of acute and chronic sleep loss on immune modulation of rats

AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpregu.00105.2007 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 293 (1) ◽

pp. R504-R509 ◽

Cited By ~ 112

Author(s):

A. Zager ◽

M. L. Andersen ◽

F. S. Ruiz ◽

I. B. Antunes ◽

S. Tufik

Keyword(s):

Sleep Deprivation ◽

Immune Function ◽

Lymphocyte Count ◽

Cellular Response ◽

Complement C3 ◽

Control Group ◽

Spleen Weight ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Recovery Sleep ◽

Cell Counts

Sleep deprivation is now recognized as an increasingly common condition inherent to modern society, and one that in many ways, is detrimental to certain physiological systems, namely, immune function. Although sleep is now viewed by a significant body of researchers as being essential for the proper working of a host of defense systems, the consequences of a lack of sleep on immune function remains to be fully comprehended. The aim of the current study was to investigate how paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) for 24 and 96 h and sleep restriction (SR) for 21 days by the modified multiple-platform method, and their respective 24-h recovery periods, affect immune activation in rats. To this end, we assessed circulating white blood cell counts, lymphocyte count within immune organs, as well as Ig and complement production. The data revealed that PSD for 96 h increased complement C3 and corticosterone concentration in relation to the control group. In contrast, the spleen weight, total leukocytes, and lymphocytes decreased during SR for 21 days when compared with the control group, although production of a certain class of immunoglobulin, the IgM, did increase. After recovery sleep, lymphocyte count in axillary lymph nodes grew when rats had rebound sleep after PSD for 24 h, neutrophils increased after PSD 96 h and lymphocytes numbers were higher after SR 21 days. Such alterations during sleep deprivation suggest only minor alterations of nonspecific immune parameters during acute PSD, and a significant impairment in cellular response during chronic SR.

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