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Gut microbiota dysbiosis
Author(s) -
HidalgoCantabrana C.,
Gómez J.,
Delgado S.,
RequenaLópez S.,
QueiroSilva R.,
Margolles A.,
Coto E.,
Sánchez B.,
CotoSegura P.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.304
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1365-2133
pISSN - 0007-0963
DOI - 10.1111/bjd.18578
Subject(s) - dysbiosis , psoriasis , gut flora , immunology , bacteria , biology , disease , microbiome , gut bacteria , immune system , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , genetics
Summary Human beings and other animals live with a complex mixture of different bacteria (called microbiota) on the skin and in the gut, and these micro‐organisms play an important role in helping us to remain healthy. Alterations in the proportions of different bacteria are found in several disease states; this is called dysbiosis. The mixture of different bacteria in the healthy gut plays an important role in developing and maintaining a healthy immune system. Although patients with psoriasis are known to have altered microbiota on their skin, compared with unaffected individuals, little is known about the proportions of different bacteria in their guts. The authors, working in several different departments in Spain, suggest that changes in the gut microbiota may play a part in the development of psoriasis. They compared the gut microbiota in 19 patients with psoriasis with 20 healthy controls (people without psoriasis) living in the same region, by extracting bacterial DNA from fresh samples of faeces. The authors found a reduced diversity of bacteria in the samples from psoriatic patients, with a relative abundance of some bacterial species not found in the healthy controls. They suggest that further studies are needed to compare the patterns of microbiota in patients with different degrees of psoriasis severity, and in different patterns of psoriasis. This could help to establish whether gut dysbiosis plays a role in the development of the disease; if so, there could be a place for therapies aimed at changing the bacterial composition of the gut, such as transplantation of faecal bacteria or the use of probiotic treatments.