Profiling cutaneous microbiome community by 16S rRNA (V1-V3) in psoriasis patients

The cohort in this study consisted of 28 psoriasis patients and 26 healthy individuals. In order to gain a comprehensive view of the psoriasis-associated skin microbiome we sampled the microbiome across six different skin sites: scalp, trunk, arm, leg, axilla and gluteal fold, which covers all three skin groups (Table 2). Three different “disease states” were sampled for each skin site: healthy skin from healthy subjects (Healthy), unaffected or non-lesional skin from psoriasis patients (PSO_N), and lesional skin from psoriasis patients (PSO_L). We sampled all 6 sites for both healthy (Healthy) and unaffected skin (PSO_N). Only sites with psoriasis lesions present were sampled for psoriatic lesional samples (PSO_L). The sampling of these six skin sites from psoriatic lesional skin, psoriatic non-lesional skin, and healthy control skin allowed for an examination of how the psoriatic microbiome differs at different sites as well as how it changes with disease progression (lesional vs non-lesional).