Abstract
Dead Sea climatotherapy (DSC) is a well-established therapeutic modality for the treatment of several diseases, including atopic dermatitis. Skin microbiome studies have shown that skin microbiome diversity is anticorrelated with both atopic dermatitis severity and concurrent Staphylococcus aureus overgrowth. This study aimed to determine whether DSC induces skin microbiome changes concurrent with clinical improvements in atopic dermatitis. We sampled 35 atopic dermatitis patients and ten healthy controls on both the antecubital and popliteal fossa. High-resolution microbial community profiling was attained by sequencing multiple regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Dysbiosis was observed in both lesional and nonlesional sites, which was partially attenuated following treatment. Severe AD skin underwent the most significant community shifts, and Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus mitis and Micrococcus luteus relative abundance were significantly affected by Dead Sea climatotherapy. Our study highlights the temporal shifts of the AD skin microbiome induced by Dead Sea climatotherapy and offers potential explanations for the success of climatotherapy on a variety of skin diseases, including AD.
Original language | American English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1446-1453 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Photochemistry and Photobiology |
Volume | 95 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Nov 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant 3-11174). Michael Brandwein is a recipient of the Kaete Klausner Fellowship. The funding organizations were not involved in study design, data collection, data analysis or any other stage of the research. We would like to thank the volunteers that participated in this study. Additionally, we acknowledge Shira Wax and Ira Mezin for assisting in ethical approval and planning. Thank you to Dr. Idit Shiff and Dr. Abed Nasereddin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Genomic Applications Laboratory, Core Research Facility, Faculty of Medicine, for providing sequencing support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Society for Photobiology