Abstract：
Scalp pruritus is a common skin problem that remains therapeutic challenge. The relationships between the dysbiosis of microbiota and skin diseases have caught attention recently. However, there are few reports about microbiota on itchy scalp. This study investigated scalp microbial characteristics of subjects with mild scalp pruritus of undetermined origin and preliminarily screened physiological factors and bacteria potentially related to pruritus. The pruritus severity of 17 qualified females was evaluated by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Microbiota collection was done at both itchy (n = 20) and non-itchy sites (n = 27) at occiput and crown of the same subject and Illumina sequencing was performed at the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA. The corresponding sebum content, hydration, pH, trans-epidermal water loss, erythema index and porphyrin numbers were also measured by skin tester. We identified 3044 amplicon sequence variants from 821 genera. The itchy and non-itchy sites had different microbiota structures (p = 0.045, by multivariate analysis of variance), while there were large inter- and intra-individual variations. Both sites had Staphylococcus, Cutibacterium and Lawsonella as predominant genera, which were not significantly related to pruritus. The use of three genera Lactobacillus, Morganella and Pseudomonas, could well distinguish non-itchy from itchy groups, whereas different composition patterns existed inside each group. Our investigation indicated that though the bacterial community structure on itchy scalp was individual specific, there was difference between itchy and non-itchy sites. The study provides new insights into microbiota profiling on itchy scalp, which will help microbiota-targeted therapeutic experiment or products design for scalp pruritus.
摘要：
头皮瘙痒是一种常见的皮肤问题，仍然是治疗挑战。微生物群的生态失调与皮肤疾病之间的关系最近引起了人们的关注。然而,很少有关于瘙痒头皮上微生物群的报道。本研究调查了不明原因的轻度头皮瘙痒患者的头皮微生物特征，初步筛选了与瘙痒相关的生理因素和细菌。通过视觉模拟评分（VAS）评估17名合格女性的瘙痒严重程度。在同一受试者的枕骨和冠部的发痒（n=20）和非发痒位点（n=27）进行微生物群收集，并在16SrRNA的V3-V4高变区进行Illumina测序。相应的皮脂含量，水合作用,pH值,经表皮失水,还通过皮肤测试仪测量了红斑指数和卟啉数。我们鉴定了来自821属的3044个扩增子序列变体。发痒和非发痒部位具有不同的微生物群结构（p=0.045，通过多变量方差分析），而个体间和个体内存在很大的差异。这两个部位都有葡萄球菌,主要属是切杆菌属和劳森氏菌属,与瘙痒无关。使用三个属的乳酸杆菌，摩根菌和假单胞菌,可以很好地区分非瘙痒和瘙痒组，而每组内部存在不同的组成模式。我们的调查表明，尽管瘙痒头皮上的细菌群落结构是个体特异性的，瘙痒和非瘙痒部位之间存在差异。这项研究为发痒的头皮上的微生物群分析提供了新的见解，这将有助于针对头皮瘙痒的微生物群靶向治疗实验或产品设计。
