Presence of Uterine Leiomyomas Has No Significant Impact on Gene Expression Profile in the Scalp of Patients with Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia

Taylor A Jamerson; C Conover Talbot Jr; Yemisi Dina; Crystal Aguh

doi:10.1016/j.xjidi.2021.100060

Presence of Uterine Leiomyomas Has No Significant Impact on Gene Expression Profile in the Scalp of Patients with Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia

JID Innov. 2021 Oct 6;2(1):100060. doi: 10.1016/j.xjidi.2021.100060. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Authors

Taylor A Jamerson¹, C Conover Talbot Jr², Yemisi Dina³, Crystal Aguh³

Affiliations

¹ Medical School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
² Single Cell & Transcriptomics Core, Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Department of Dermatology, Johns Hopkins Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA) is associated with increased expression of genes implicated in fibroproliferative disorders and a higher prevalence of uterine leiomyomas (ULs) among affected individuals. We sought to examine the effect of UL status on the gene expression profile of the lesional scalp in patients with CCCA. Scalp biopsy was obtained from 16 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of CCCA between 2017 and 2020. Microarray analysis was used to identify differential gene expression between patients with CCCA with a history of UL and those without the history. Of more than 20,000 genes analyzed, 23 of 25 genes with the highest expression in patients with CCCA with UL held no statistical significance. No genes previously implicated in fibroproliferative disorders were found among the upregulated transcripts. Of all genes analyzed, only eight upregulated genes and zero downregulated genes had a fold change in expression >2 in patients with CCCA with UL compared with those in patients with CCCA without UL. Our findings highlight similar gene expression patterns in the lesional scalp of patients with CCCA with and without a history of UL. This analysis is key in highlighting no evidence of causational or linked mechanobiology that accounts for the increased prevalence of UL seen in patients with CCCA that previous studies have not addressed.

Keywords: CCCA, central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia; FPD, fibroproliferative disorder; UL, uterine leiomyoma.