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Increased Bacterial Load and Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in Skin of Barrier-Deficient Mice with Reduced Cancer Susceptibility

Mice lacking three epidermal barrier proteins—envoplakin, periplakin, and involucrin (EPI-/- mice)—have a defective cornified layer, reduced epidermal γδ T cells, and increased dermal CD4(+) T cells. They are also resistant to developing skin tumors. The tumor-protective mechanism involves signaling...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Natsuga, Ken, Cipolat, Sara, Watt, Fiona M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4759621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26763429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/JID.2015.383
Descripción
Sumario:Mice lacking three epidermal barrier proteins—envoplakin, periplakin, and involucrin (EPI-/- mice)—have a defective cornified layer, reduced epidermal γδ T cells, and increased dermal CD4(+) T cells. They are also resistant to developing skin tumors. The tumor-protective mechanism involves signaling between Rae-1 expressing keratinocytes and the natural killer group 2D receptor on immune cells, which also plays a role in host defenses against infection. Given the emerging link between bacteria and cancer, we investigated whether EPI-/- mice have an altered skin microbiota. The bacterial phyla were similar in wild-type and EPI-/- skin. However, bacteria were threefold more abundant in EPI-/- skin and penetrated deeper into the epidermis. The major epithelial defense mechanism against bacteria is production of antimicrobial proteins (AMPs). EPI-/- skin exhibited enhanced expression of antimicrobial peptides. However, reducing the bacterial load by antibiotic treatment or breeding mice under specific pathogen-free conditions did not reduce AMP expression or alleviate the abnormalities in T-cell populations. We conclude that the atopic characteristics of EPI-/- skin are a consequence of the defective barrier rather than a response to the increased bacterial load. It is therefore unlikely that the increase in skin microbiota contributes directly to the observed cancer resistance.