Older Caitlin E, Diesel Alison, Patterson Adam P, Meason-Smith Courtney, Johnson Timothy J, Mansell Joanne, Suchodolski Jan S, Rodrigues Hoffmann Aline
Dermatopathology Specialty Service, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America.
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Jun 2;12(6):e0178555. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178555. eCollection 2017.
The skin is inhabited by a multitude of microorganisms. An imbalance of these microorganisms is associated with disease, however, the causal relationship between skin microbiota and disease remains unknown. To describe the cutaneous bacterial microbiota of cats and determine whether bacterial dysbiosis occurs on the skin of allergic cats, the skin surfaces on various regions of 11 healthy cats and 10 allergic cats were sampled.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Genomic DNA was extracted from skin swabs and sequenced using primers that target the V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA. The bacterial sequences from healthy cats revealed that there are differences in species diversity and richness between body sites and different epithelial surfaces. Bacterial communities preferred body site niches in the healthy cats, however, the bacterial communities on allergic cat skin tended to be more unique to the individual cat. Overall, the number of bacterial species was not significantly different between the two health status groups, however, the abundances of these bacterial species were different between healthy and allergic skin. Staphylococcus, in addition to other taxa, was more abundant on allergic skin.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study reveals that there are more bacterial species inhabiting the skin of cats than previously thought and provide some evidence of an association between dysbiosis and skin disease.
皮肤表面栖息着大量微生物。这些微生物的失衡与疾病相关，然而，皮肤微生物群与疾病之间的因果关系仍不清楚。为了描述猫的皮肤细菌微生物群，并确定过敏性猫的皮肤是否发生细菌失调，对11只健康猫和10只过敏性猫不同部位的皮肤表面进行了采样。
方法/主要发现：从皮肤拭子中提取基因组DNA，并使用靶向细菌16S rRNA V4区域的引物进行测序。健康猫的细菌序列显示，身体部位和不同上皮表面之间的物种多样性和丰富度存在差异。健康猫的细菌群落更倾向于身体部位的生态位，然而，过敏性猫皮肤的细菌群落往往对个体猫来说更具独特性。总体而言，两个健康状态组之间的细菌种类数量没有显著差异，然而，这些细菌种类的丰度在健康皮肤和过敏性皮肤之间有所不同。除其他分类群外，葡萄球菌在过敏性皮肤上更为丰富。
结论/意义：本研究表明，猫皮肤中栖息的细菌种类比以前认为的更多，并提供了一些细菌失调与皮肤病之间存在关联的证据。
