Transcriptomic Profiling of Psoriatic Lesions by Tape-Stripping Reveals Site-Specific Differences

Although biologic therapies have significantly improved outcomes for patients with moderate to severe disease, certain anatomical regions often remain resistant to treatment. Given the observed variability in treatment response depending on lesion location, we aimed to explore anatomical site-specific differences in the skin transcriptome.

Using a non-invasive tape-stripping technique, we collected and analysed 44 psoriatic plaque samples from the scalp, trunk, upper extremities, and lower extremities, followed by differential gene expression and gene ontology analysis. Moreover, we included 80 samples obtained from healthy skin biopsies (GSE54456) to conduct an inflammation-controlled approach. We used two different approaches, an intra-disease approach, in which anatomically different sites were compared, and an inflammation-controlled approach, in which the inflammation bias was minimized.