Identification of key pathways and genes involved in psoriasis and vitiligo using bioinformatics analysis

Psoriasis and vitiligo are common immune-related skin disorders. Patients are often clinically diagnosed with both diseases. However, whether psoriasis and vitiligo share common genetic factors and aberrant signal pathways that predispose patients to both diseases remains unclear. This study was performed to clarify these factors using bioinformatics analysis. Publicly available gene expression profiles for GSE109248 and GSE53552 in psoriasis and GSE75819 and GSE65127 in vitiligo from lesional and non-lesional skin tissues were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology terms analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, and protein–protein interaction analysis was also performed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms. Nine overlapping DEGs were found between psoriasis and vitiligo. They are AKR1B10, CRABP1, FOXC1, GPM6B, KIT, MLPH, SOX10, TAGLN, and TUBB2B, respectively. Except for the upregulation of AKR1B10, others are downregulated. Pathway enrichment analyses revealed that these overlapping DEGs were mainly enriched in melanocyte differentiation; exocrine system development; mesenchymal cell development; stem cell differentiation and development; and neural crest cell differentiation, development, and migration. RT-qPCR was used to verify the expression of the DEGs in lesions compared to adjacent non-lesional tissues from three patients with psoriasis combined with vitiligo. Research confirmed that there were statistically significant differences among AKR1B10, FOXC1, KIT, MLPH and SOX10 in lesions compared to adjacent non-lesional tissues (P<0.05), which was consistent with the bioinformatical results. In this study, we detected potential genes and their associated enriched pathways to help understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the simultaneous occurrence of psoriasis and vitiligo.