503 Skin multi-omics data analysis reveals in the impact of life stress on skin

Previous studies showed that life stress negatively impacts skin, but the relevant mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we recruited 60 stressed and 60 relaxed people (19-29 years old) to study how stress affects the skin. Each volunteer completed a 31-items life stress questionnaire, 24-items skin questionnaire, 14-items skin trait testing, and provided a sample of suction blister fluid for quantifying 36 skin cytokines, and roofs for DNA methylome and transcriptome analysis. We found that the stressed group had more severe skin dullness than the relaxed group (P=7.36×10-6). There was no significant difference in skin cytokines between the two groups, while the stressed group had an altered skin methylome and transcriptome profile. We detected 289 differentially methylated probes (DMPs) and 10 differential expression genes. Integration of methylation and expression data revealed 7 functional epigenetic modules (P<0.05), which were involved in the glutamatergic synapse, axon guidance pathway, etc. In line with previous studies on plasma/salivary, we found that life stress also affects the glutamatergic synapse in the skin. Interestingly, the expression level of SERPINA1 was significantly associated with a DMP (r=-0.29, p=0.004, in TSS1500 of SERPINA1), and with skin dullness (β=1.88, P=0.03). SERPINA1 reportedly influences the morning plasma/salivary cortisol, a life stress marker. This study provided important insight into the impact of life stress on skin, and shed light on the relevant molecular mechanism.