Non‑invasive proteome‑wide quantification of skin barrier‑related proteins using label‑free LC‑MS/MS analysis.

A number of epidermal proteins are closely related to skin barrier function, the abnormalities of which can lead to specific skin diseases. These proteins must be quantified to further investigate the changes in the skin barrier between healthy and disease states. However, the non‑invasive and proteome‑wide quantification of skin proteins without any labelling steps remains a challenge.

Noninvasive analysis of skin proteins in healthy Chinese subjects using an Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer.

Objective: The objective of this study was to perform noninvasive analysis of skin proteins in a healthy Chinese population using label-free nanoflow liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nLC-MS).

Materials And Methods: Five consecutive tape strippings were obtained from the volar forearm skin of healthy Chinese subjects. Proteins were extracted, and trypsin-digested peptides were analyzed by a nanochromatography instrument coupled to an Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer.

Epigenome-wide association data implicates DNA methylation-mediated genetic risk in psoriasis.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and altered keratinocyte differentiation and inflammation and is caused by the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Previous studies have revealed that DNA methylation (DNAm) and genetic makers are closely associated with psoriasis, and strong evidences have shown that DNAm can be controlled by genetic factors, which attracted us to evaluate the relationship among DNAm, genetic makers, and disease status.

Methods: We utilized the genome-wide methylation data of psoriatic skin (PP,  = 114) and unaffected control skin (NN,  = 62) tissue samples in our previous study, and we performed whole-genome genotyping with peripheral blood of the same samples to evaluate the underlying genetic effect on skin DNA methylation.

A rare variant in COL11A1 is strongly associated with adult height in Chinese Han population.

Human height is a highly heritable trait in which multiple genes are involved. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified that COL11A1 is an important susceptibility gene for human height. To determine whether the variants of COL11A1 are associated with adult and children height, we analyzed splicing and coding single-nucleotide variants across COL11A1 through exome-targeted sequencing and two validation stages with a total 20,426 Chinese Han samples.