title: The skin microbiome of caspase-14-deficient mice shows mild dysbiosis.
abstract: Caspase-14, an important proteinase involved in filaggrin catabolism, is mainly active in terminally differentiating keratinocytes, where it is required for the generation of skin natural moisturizing factors (NMFs). Consequently, caspase-14 deficient epidermis is characterized by reduced levels of NMFs such as urocanic acid and 2-pyrrolidone-5-carboxylic acid. Patients suffering from filaggrin deficiency are prone to develop atopic dermatitis, which is accompanied with increased microbial burden. Among several reasons, this effect could be due to a decrease in filaggrin breakdown products. In this study, we found that caspase-14(-/-) mice show enhanced antibacterial response compared to wild-type mice when challenged with bacteria. Therefore, we compared the microbial communities between wild-type and caspase-14(-/-) mice by sequencing of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA genes. We observed that caspase-14 ablation leads to an increase in bacterial richness and diversity during steady-state conditions. Although both wild-type and caspase-14(-/-) skin were dominated by the Firmicutes phylum, the Staphylococcaceae family was reduced in caspase-14(-/-) mice. Altogether, our data demonstrated that caspase-14 deficiency causes the imbalance of the skin-resident bacterial communities.
authors.affiliation: Inflammation Research Center, VIB, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubica
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hildebrand
authors.forename: Brigitta M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goossens
authors.forename: Jurgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Del Favero
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vercammen
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cornelis
authors.forename: Jens-Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandenabeele
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raes
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Declercq
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053456:Caspase 14 / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D064806:Dysbiosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D064307:Microbiota / Q000502:physiology*; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D040141:Staphylococcaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D014560:Urocanic Acid / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D053456:Caspase 14; D014560:Urocanic Acid
keywords: antimicrobial activity; caspase-14; microbiome