981 Alterations of gene expression in papulopustular rosacea by whole transcriptome analysis

Rosacea is a common and incurable skin disorder. Identification of key molecular pathways found in rosacea may lead to new and better directions to treat this disease. The main objective was to identify differentially expressed genes in papulopustular rosacea skin in an unbiased fashion by whole transcriptome analysis. After IRB approval and written informed consent, rosacea skin biopsies from 6 individuals with untreated, papulopustular rosacea and their adjacent non-lesional skin were obtained. These samples were subjected to RNA extraction and RNA-sequencing (Illumina HiSeq 4000). Significantly altered genes were identified by pairwise comparison of rosacea versus adjacent non-lesional skin from the same individual by DESeq. Selected gene expression differences were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Gene Ontology (GO) term analysis was performed to identify biologic themes. Analysis identified 487 significantly altered genes (p