Epicutaneous house dust mite (HDM)-induced skin lesions feature early activation of T helper 2 inflammatory and pruritogenic pathways in HDM-nonsensitised dogs.

Background: Epicutaneously house dust mite-sensitised (HDM-S) healthy dogs are commonly used as canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) models; however, the exact mechanisms of HDM-induced AD immune activation in HDM-S and HDM-nonsensitised (NS) dogs remain unclear.

Objectives: To characterise the inflammatory and pruritogenic transcriptome of acute epicutaneous HDM-induced skin lesions at 6 h and 24 h in HDM-NS and HDM-S dogs; untreated skin at 0 h from each dog served as control.

Animals: Six HDM-S and six HDM-NS laboratory beagles.

Materials and methods: Processed expression data from GEO deposited by Schamber et al. (G3 (Bethesda), 2014, 4 and 1787) (GSE58442) were downloaded and analysed using R and the Bioconductor package. Significance analysis was performed with the limma package; genes with false discovery rate <0.05 and fold-change ≤/≥1.5 were considered significantly differentially expressed (DEGs).

Results: A 2D principal component analysis revealed no clear separation between HDM-NS and HDM-S dogs at 6 h and 24 h time points. HDM-induced skin lesions in sensitised and nonsensitised dogs at the 24 h time point showed significant upregulation of T helper cell (Th)2 genes (interleukin [IL]-4R, IL-5, IL-13, CCL13 and CCL17), as well as proinflammatory- (LTB, IL-1A and IL-18), Th1- (CXCL10, OASL and MX-1) and Th17-related markers (IL-17B, IL-17F, CCL19 and CCL20). The key Th22-related maker, IL-22, was upregulated only in the HDM-S group at the 24 h time point. Both groups at 24 h featured significant upregulation of several noncytokine pruritogens, such as trypsin, chymase, cathepsin S, periostin and neuromedin B.

Conclusions and clinical relevance: Taken together, we establish that epicutaneous HDM patch application induces immune changes in HDM-NS dogs with Th2 dominance and activates several itch-promoting pathways.