Newborn infant skin gene expression: Remarkable differences versus adults

Marty O Visscher; Ping Hu; Andrew N Carr; Charles C Bascom; Robert J Isfort; Kellen Creswell; Rachel Adams; Jay P Tiesman; Karen Lammers; Vivek Narendran

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258554

Newborn infant skin gene expression: Remarkable differences versus adults

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 19;16(10):e0258554. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258554. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Skin Sciences, Program, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America.
² James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America.
³ The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America.
⁴ Perinatal Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America.

Abstract

At birth, human infants are poised to survive in harsh, hostile conditions. An understanding of the state of newborn skin development and maturation is key to the maintenance of health, optimum response to injury, healing and disease. The observational study collected full-thickness newborn skin samples from 27 infants at surgery and compared them to skin samples from 43 adult sites protected from ultraviolet radiation exposure, as the standard for stable, mature skin. Transcriptomics profiling and gene set enrichment analysis were performed. Statistical analysis established over 25,000 differentially regulated probe sets, representing 10,647 distinct genes, in infant skin compared to adult skin. Gene set enrichment analysis showed a significant increase in 143 biological processes (adjusted p < 0.01) in infant skin, versus adult skin samples, including extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, cell adhesion, collagen fibril organization and fatty acid metabolic process. ECM organization and ECM structure organization were the biological processes in infant skin with the lowest adjusted P-value. Genes involving epidermal development, immune function, cell differentiation, and hair cycle were overexpressed in adults, representing 101 significantly enriched biological processes (adjusted p < 0.01). The processes with the highest significant difference were skin and epidermal development, e.g., keratinocyte differentiation, keratinization and cornification intermediate filament cytoskeleton organization and hair cycle. Enriched Gene Ontology (GO) biological processes also involved immune function, including antigen processing and presentation. When compared to ultraviolet radiation-protected adult skin, our results provide essential insight into infant skin and its ability to support the newborn's preparedness to survive and flourish, despite the infant's new environment laden with microbes, high oxygen tension and potential irritants. This fundamental knowledge is expected to guide strategies to protect and preserve the features of unperturbed, young skin.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Gene Expression Profiling*
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Ultraviolet Rays

Grants and funding

Partial funding for this research was provided by The Procter & Gamble Company to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) as a Sponsored Research Agreement specifying that the study initiated by investigator (MOV) at CCHMC had the freedom to supervise all aspects of the research. The sponsored research agreement is SRA110602. The sponsor URL is https://us.pg.com. Other than the authors, the funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. The authors PH, ANC, KC, CCB, RJI, RA, JPT are current or former employees of the sponsor. The authors MOV, KL, VN have no conflicts of interest to report.