Potential role of the skin and gut microbiota in premenarchal vulvar lichen sclerosus: A pilot case-control study

Abstract

The etiology of vulvar lichen sclerosus (LS) remains unclear; however, alterations in cutaneous and gut microbiota may be contributing to the pathogenesis of this inflammatory condition. To explore this hypothesis, we conducted a pilot case-control study, obtaining dermal swab and stool samples from prepubertal girls with vulvar LS (n = 5), girls with nonspecific vulvovaginitis (n = 5), and healthy controls (n = 3). Samples (n = 56) were subjected to total DNA extractions. Resulting DNA was purified, subjected to PCR (targeting the V3V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene), sequenced, and analyzed using QIIME, MetagenomeSeq, and DESeq2 software packages. Our findings showed that there were significant differences in the cutaneous and gut microbiotas of girls with LS compared to controls. On the skin, girls with LS had a statistically significantly higher relative abundance of Porphyromonas spp., Parvimonas spp., Peptoniphilus spp., Prevotella spp., Dialister spp., and Peptostreptococcus spp., but a lower relative abundance of Cornyebacterium compared to the control group. In the gut samples, girls with LS had a significantly higher relative abundance of Dialister spp., Clostridiales spp., Paraprevotella spp., Escherichia coli, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, and Akkermansia muciniphila, and a lower relative abundance of Roseburia faecis and Ruminococcus bromii compared to controls. These results suggest a potential association between cutaneous and gut dysbiosis and pediatric vulvar LS. Future studies involving larger samples sizes are warranted to further evaluate this association.

Tianwang Buxin Granules Influence the Intestinal Flora in Perimenopausal Insomnia

“…Gao et al found that the proportion of Blautia obeum, Faecalibacterium, Prevotella copri, Roseburia faecis, and Ruminococcus in the intestine of patients with colon cancer decreased in varying degrees (P < 0:05) [29]. Suhana et al tested the skin swabs and stool samples of 13 patients and found that lichen sclerosus may be associated with abnormal levels of Roseburia faecis and Ruminococcus [30]. We further studied whether the effect of TWBXG was achieved by regulating the disordered intestinal flora by treating 13 insomniac patients with TWBXG for 4 weeks.…”

Pediatric Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus—A Review of the Literature

“…Chattopadhyay et al, in a pilot small-sample study ( n = 13), showed promising results in this matter. They suggest that there may be a relation between intestinal and cutaneous dysbiosis, and the disease in children, although this needs further investigation [ 22 ].…”

“…It might be difficult to distinguish the lesions from those of morphoea. The clinical types of extragenital VLS include an extensive bullous form [ 19 , 21 ] and annular, blaschkoid and keratotic variants [ 22 ]. Koebnerization is very common at extragenital sites, arising at pressure points, old surgical and radiotherapy scars, and sites of trauma, including urostomies [ 18 ].…”

Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus from Pathophysiology to Therapeutic Approaches: Evidence and Prospects

“…A dysbiosis has been observed in the skin and gut microbiotas of LS subjects [91]. In particular, the bacterial genera Prevotella spp., Peptostrepococcus spp., Porphyromonas spp.…”