Coordinator: Fulvia Pimpinelli

This LINE concerning four Macro-Areas:

• Microbiome and Skin
• Cellular Interactions in Inflammatory Pathologies
• Cellular Interactions in Neoplastic Pathologies
• Cellular Interactions in Regenerative Medicine.

The skin plays pivotal roles in governing the omeostasis of the body and the adaptation to different environments, thus representing an invaluable model to explore the mechanism(s) involved in the response to different stimuli, including the alterations of the tight relationship between the host and the skin microbiota in the development of inflammatory or neoplastic processes. The develoment of in vivo and in vitro models to explore microbiota-skin interactions as well as the biochemical alterations involved in pathologic skin processes represent a pre-requisite to identify key pathogenic mechanism(s) triggered by the disease and exploitable for the development of novel terapeutic strategies.

The recent wide application of genetic sequencing provided compelling evidence of the complex architecture of the microbial communities that share their habitat within our skin and provide their invaulable contribution to many different skin functions. Marked variations in the compositon of the individual skin microbiota appear to play key roles in different pathologic processes involving the skin. In the healthy skin, microbial commensal communities growth endowed in a polymeric extracellular matrix called "biofilm". Biofilm growth allow microbial cells to express specific gene products which confer many additional properties to the microbial communities, useful to both microbial and host omeostasis. However, in pathological conditions characterized by marked dysbiosis, biofilm growth may contribute at protecting microbial cells against the immune response as well as antimicrobials. Despite their intimate relationship, studies to date have been mostly aimed at characterizing either the skin microbiota or microbial biofilm, rarely, if ever, in association. The present set of studies is aimed at exploring the variations and biochemical alterations of microbial communities as well as biofilm composition and biochemical properties in the generation of skin dysbiosis in allergic and inflammatory diseases of the skin as well as in the presence of infectious or neoplastic diseases, in order to identify pathologic mechanism(s) exploitable for the development of specific therapeutic strategies.

Goals:

Development of in vivo/in vitro models to explore the microbiota composition of the skin, as well as interactions and biochemical alterations of microbial biofilm communities involved in the generation of skin dysbiosis in allergic, inflammatory, infectious and neoplastic diseases, in order to identify pathogenic meccanism(s) and  therapeutic targets