The human skin-specific genes defined by transcriptomics and antibody-based profiling

Normal skin is consists mainly of epidermal cells in different phases of de-differentiation (keratinization) organized in several distinct layers with different appearance, functions, and molecular signatures. To characterize the skin-specific genes and the landscape of gene and protein expression in normal human skin in different layers and stages of differentiation, scientists from the Human Protein Atlas project have combined immunohistochemistry-based protein profiling and genome-wide deep sequencing of mRNA to compare skin with other normal tissue types.

The study defined 417 genes with elevated expression in skin, where 106 were expressed at least five-fold higher than that in other tissues. These encoded for both well-known proteins involved in epidermal differentiation and for proteins with unknown functions and expression patterns in skin. Using immunohistochemistry the expression of both novel and known protein were visualized in a layer-specific context, which can provide clues as to the function and biological relevance of the novel genes.

Visit the human skin proteome knowledge page.

Read the full analysis of the human skin proteome here.