Skin biopsies are commonly used for the assessment of skin pathology in various skin
diseases including atopic dermatitis (AD). However, due to the invasive nature of
skin biopsies, many patients, particularly children, decline participation. This can
lead to potential subject sampling bias as data could be skewed toward more severe,
older patients willing to give biopsies. Recently, researchers have began studying
the skin with a minimal, non-invasive technique using skin tape strips (STS) to profile
the epidermal transcriptome, proteins, and lipids in the skin. However, side by side
comparisons of skin biopsy and STS have not been done to assess epidermal penetration.
Therefore, 20 STS were collected from the volar surface of forearm from healthy non-atopic
subjects and patients with AD, followed by the collection of skin biopsies from adjacent
non-taped and taped area of skin. Using H&E staining and immunostaining, we demonstrated
that 20 STS reach the upper granular layer of the epidermis. Additionally, we found
that the expression of terminal differentiation markers in samples from STS procedure
positively correlated with the expression level of these markers in matching skin
biopsies. Therefore, STS is a non-invasive and reliable approach to evaluate the expression
of skin terminal differentiation markers, which are defective in AD skin.