Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Dermatol. Oct 25, 2020; 8(2): 10-12
Published online Oct 25, 2020. doi: 10.5314/wjd.v8.i2.10
Fecal microbiota transplant for more than Clostridioides difficile: Dermatology a new frontier
Ashley M Snyder, James Abbott, M Kyle Jensen, Aaron M Secrest
Ashley M Snyder, James Abbott, Aaron M Secrest, Department of Dermatology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, United States
Ashley M Snyder, Aaron M Secrest, Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, United States
M Kyle Jensen, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84113, United States
Author contributions: Snyder AM and Secrest AM coordinated Institutional Review Board approval and data access; Snyder AM, Jensen MK, and Secrest AM provided input in developing methods for the study; Abbott J collected data for this study and addressed the suitability of the data for analysis; Snyder AM drafted the manuscript. All authors were involved in the revision of the manuscript and gave approval for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts-of-interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ashley M Snyder, MPH, Graduate Assistant, Department of Dermatology, University of Utah, 30 North 1900 East, 4A330, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, United States. ashley.snyder@utah.edu
Received: August 19, 2020
Peer-review started: August 19, 2020
First decision: September 12, 2020
Revised: September 16, 2020
Accepted: September 22, 2020
Article in press: September 22, 2020
Published online: October 25, 2020
Abstract

Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has quickly become popular in research not only for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections but for other chronic conditions as well. Recent, small dermatologic studies have reported improvements in inflammatory skin conditions in individuals treated with FMT, but larger studies are needed to clarify this possible relationship between the skin and the gut microbiome. We conducted a single-center, retrospective chart review to assess changes in acne, dermatitis herpetiformis and/or celiac disease, eczema, and psoriasis. Due to the retrospective nature of this study and the limitations of the current electronic medical record, we were unable to adequately assess cases of these diseases in relation to FMT. However, this study informs us that improvements in retrospective data are needed to formally evaluate this possible association. The better, but more cumbersome, study design would be a prospective, observational study. We encourage others to pursue further interdepartmental research on the influence of the gut microbiome on inflammatory skin diseases.

Keywords: Fecal microbiota transplantation, Skin diseases, Dermatology, Retrospective, Clostridium difficile, Inflammation

Core Tip: Future research investigating fecal microbiota transplant’s potential role in treating dermatologic disease needs to focus on large interdisciplinary prospective studies in order to obtain the information needed for determining an association.