Metabolomics is emerging as a strong approach to understand the state of cellular and biological processes at different stages of the growth and disease. Metabolite profile can be viewed as the closest representation of a given phenotype including the skin. Skin retains numerous metabolites that either fulfill specific physiological function or are by-products of metabolism. The skin surface can be sampled in a non-invasive way to detect and quantify metabolites related to a disease or skin condition. Here, we performed untargeted metabolomics using mass-spectrometry, on skin samples from 134 women, aged 25-45 years, living in China. We detected 350 metabolites on skin surface of the study population. These women also underwent dermatological assessment for 16 different skin conditions that included pigmentary disorders, wrinkles, dry skin and acne etc. Each skin condition evaluation included an assessment of different sub-conditions or modalities, in total 35 modalities were recorded by dermatological examination. Taking different statistical approaches, we established metabolite profiles that correlated with each skin condition. To achieve this and for each skin condition, we divided the study subjects into 2 groups, with or without a condition. We proceeded to perform univariate and multivariate statistical analysis. Thus, we obtained a set of metabolites or molecular signature associated with each skin condition based on significant correlation. In order to understand the biological connection for each signature, we considered two approaches: metabolite pathway analysis and network inference, based on graphical models (graphical lasso). In conclusion, these molecular maps indicate towards involvement of skin biological processes such as barrier function, oxidative stress and DNA damage that could be linked/associated to a skin clinical manifestation such as dry skin, wrinkles and pigmentary disorders.

ESDR083 - Metabolomics, a tool to construe skin phenotype

50th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Dermatological Research. VIRTUAL MEETING