scholarly journals Challenges in exploring and manipulating the human skin microbiome

Microbiome ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manon Boxberger ◽  
Valérie Cenizo ◽  
Nadim Cassir ◽  
Bernard La Scola

AbstractThe skin is the exterior interface of the human body with the environment. Despite its harsh physical landscape, the skin is colonized by diverse commensal microbes. In this review, we discuss recent insights into skin microbial populations, including their composition and role in health and disease and their modulation by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, with a focus on the pathobiological basis of skin aging. We also describe the most recent tools for investigating the skin microbiota composition and microbe-skin relationships and perspectives regarding the challenges of skin microbiome manipulation.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258960
Author(s):  
Wynand Alkema ◽  
Jos Boekhorst ◽  
Robyn T. Eijlander ◽  
Steve Schnittger ◽  
Fini De Gruyter ◽  
...  

During aging of human skin, a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors cause the alteration of the skin’s structure, function and cutaneous physiology. Many studies have investigated the influence of the skin microbiome on these alterations, but the molecular mechanisms that dictate the interplay between these factors and the skin microbiome are still not fully understood. To obtain more insight into the connection between the skin microbiome and the human physiological processes involved in skin aging, we performed a systematic study on interconnected pathways of human and bacterial metabolic processes that are known to play a role in skin aging. The bacterial genes in these pathways were subsequently used to create Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), which were applied to screen for presence of defined functionalities in both genomic and metagenomic datasets of skin-associated bacteria. These models were further applied on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data from skin microbiota samples derived from female volunteers of two different age groups (25–28 years (‘young’) and 59–68 years (‘old’)). The results show that the main bacterial pathways associated with aging skin are those involved in the production of pigmentation intermediates, fatty acids and ceramides. This study furthermore provides evidence for a relation between skin aging and bacterial enzymes involved in protein glycation. Taken together, the results and insights described in this paper provide new leads for intervening with bacterial processes that are associated with aging of human skin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Skowron ◽  
Justyna Bauza-Kaszewska ◽  
Zuzanna Kraszewska ◽  
Natalia Wiktorczyk-Kapischke ◽  
Katarzyna Grudlewska-Buda ◽  
...  

The skin is the largest organ of the human body and it protects the body from the external environment. It has become the topic of interest of researchers from various scientific fields. Microorganisms ensure the proper functioning of the skin. Of great importance, are the mutual relations between such microorganisms and their responses to environmental impacts, as dysbiosis may contribute to serious skin diseases. Molecular methods, used for microorganism identification, allow us to gain a better understanding of the skin microbiome. The presented article contains the latest reports on the skin microbiota in health and disease. The review discusses the relationship between a properly functioning microbiome and the body’s immune system, as well as the impact of internal and external factors on the human skin microbiome.


Apmis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lene Bay ◽  
Hans Christian Ring

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-261
Author(s):  
Stella Vania ◽  
Amarila Malik

Skin serves as the first physical barrier and biological barrier by the colonization of commensal bacteria to prevent pathogen invasion. It was known that the disruption on normal commensal microbiota composition or dysbiosis causes skin diseases, while the skin microbiota diversity itself is influenced by several factors, one of them is ethnicity. This study shows the influence of ethnicity factor in Papuans, Javanese, and Chinese descent young adults living in Jakarta on skin microbiome profiles. The microbiota genomic DNA are extracted from the face skin samples and sequenced with Next Generation Sequencing method to be further analyzed. The result shows that individuals with the same ethnic background share similar skin microbiome characteristics. The greatest skin microbiome alpha diversity is shown by the Papuans and the Chinese descent the smallest. Ethnicity factor that shows statistically significant differences in interindividual dissimilarities are independent of other intriguing factors such as age, geographical location, etc. Therefore the ethnic origin of individuals especially from three ethnics above is a factor to be considered in skin microbiome research and the skin microbiota composition can be used for potential future applications.


Author(s):  
M. ORHAN VAIZOGLU

In recent years various Microbiomes (Skin, Gut Lumen) of the human body have attracted the attention of different research groups. In the meantime it has been shown that the conventional therapy of different diseases by making use of antibiotics and similar antibacterial treatments may disturb the harmony of the Skin Microbiome, resulting in dysbiosis. There are efforts of using “live” or “tyndallized (lysed)” probiotics in order to treat different diseases of the skin. It is also known that amino acids are one of the important key elements of the skin. In this paper, a hypothesis for the utilization of yogurt as an excipient for various topical dermatological products will be proposed. Yogurt contains significant amounts of; Probiotics (starter cultures), Amino Acids, Vitamins, Minerals and various Fatty Acids (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). Besides, it has been shown that Antimicrobial Peptides (Bacteriocins) are also present in yogurt. Yogurt could eventually be used as an excipient for the production of various topical dermatological products in order to deliver some of the above-mentioned constituents to the Stratum Corneum (Skin) locally.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (25) ◽  
pp. E5786-E5795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley A. Ross ◽  
Kirsten M. Müller ◽  
J. Scott Weese ◽  
Josh D. Neufeld

Skin is the largest organ of the body and represents the primary physical barrier between mammals and their external environment, yet the factors that govern skin microbial community composition among mammals are poorly understood. The objective of this research was to generate a skin microbiota baseline for members of the class Mammalia, testing the effects of host species, geographic location, body region, and biological sex. Skin from the back, torso, and inner thighs of 177 nonhuman mammals was sampled, representing individuals from 38 species and 10 mammalian orders. Animals were sampled from farms, zoos, households, and the wild. The DNA extracts from all skin swabs were amplified by PCR and sequenced, targeting the V3-V4 regions of bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes. Previously published skin microbiome data from 20 human participants, sampled and sequenced using an identical protocol to the nonhuman mammals, were included to make this a comprehensive analysis. Human skin microbial communities were distinct and significantly less diverse than all other sampled mammalian orders. The factor most strongly associated with microbial community data for all samples was whether the host was a human. Within nonhuman samples, host taxonomic order was the most significant factor influencing skin microbiota, followed by the geographic location of the habitat. By comparing the congruence between host phylogeny and microbial community dendrograms, we observed that Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) and Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) had significant congruence, providing evidence of phylosymbiosis between skin microbial communities and their hosts.


mBio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lene Bay ◽  
Christopher James Barnes ◽  
Blaine Gabriel Fritz ◽  
Jonathan Thorsen ◽  
Marlene Elise Møller Restrup ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Human skin microbiota has been described as a “microbial fingerprint” due to observed differences between individuals. Current understanding of the cutaneous microbiota is based on sampling the outermost layers of the epidermis, while the microbiota in the remaining skin layers has not yet been fully characterized. Environmental conditions can vary drastically between the cutaneous compartments and give rise to unique communities. We demonstrate that the dermal microbiota is surprisingly similar among individuals and contains a specific subset of the epidermal microbiota. Variability in bacterial community composition decreased significantly from the epidermal to the dermal compartment but was similar among anatomic locations (hip and knee). The composition of the epidermal microbiota was more strongly affected by environmental factors than that of the dermal community. These results indicate a well-conserved dermal community that is functionally distinct from the epidermal community, challenging the current dogma. Future studies in cutaneous disorders and chronic infections may benefit by focusing on the dermal microbiota as a persistent microbial community. IMPORTANCE Human skin microbiota is thought to be unique according to the individual's lifestyle and genetic predisposition. This is true for the epidermal microbiota, while our findings demonstrate that the dermal microbiota is universal between healthy individuals. The preserved dermal microbial community is compositionally unique and functionally distinct to the specific environment in the depth of human skin. It is expected to have direct contact with the immune response of the human host, and research in the communication between host and microbiota should be targeted to this cutaneous compartment. This novel insight into specific microbial adaptation can be used advantageously in the research of chronic disorders and infections of the skin. It can enlighten the alteration between health and disease to the benefit of patients suffering from long-lasting socioeconomic illnesses.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley A. Ross ◽  
Kirsten Müller ◽  
J. Scott Weese ◽  
Josh D. Neufeld

AbstractSkin is the largest organ of the body and represents the primary physical barrier between mammals and their external environment. The objective of this research was to generate a skin microbiota baseline for members of the class Mammalia, testing the effects of host species, geographic location, body region, and biological sex. The back, torso, and inner thigh regions of 177 non-human mammals were collected to include representatives from 38 species and 10 mammalian orders. Animals were collected from local farms, zoos, households, and the wild. All samples were amplified using the V3-V4 16S rRNA gene region and sequenced using a MiSeq (Illumina). For reference, previously published skin microbiome data from 20 human participants, sampled using an identical protocol to the non-human mammals, were included in the analysis. Human skin was significantly less diverse than all other mammalian orders and the factor most strongly associated with community variation for all samples was whether the host was a human. Within non-human samples, host taxonomic order was the most significant factor influencing the skin community, followed by the geographic location of the habitat. By comparing the congruence between known host phylogeny and microbial community dendrograms, we observed that Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) and Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) had significant congruence, providing first evidence of phylosymbiosis between skin communities and their hosts.SignificanceSkin forms a critical protective barrier between a mammal and its external environment. Baseline data on the mammalian skin microbiome is crucial for making informed decisions related to veterinary research and biodiversity conservation strategies, in addition to providing insight into mammalian evolutionary history. To our knowledge, this study represents the largest mammalian skin microbiota project to date. These findings demonstrate that human skin is distinct, not only from other Primates, but from all 10 mammalian orders sampled. Using phylosymbiosis analysis, we provide the first evidence that co-evolution may be occurring between skin communities and their mammalian hosts, which warrants more in-depth future studies of the relationships between mammals and their skin microbiota.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Kelly Dong ◽  
Earl Goyarts ◽  
Antonella Rella ◽  
Edward Pelle ◽  
Yung Hou Wong ◽  
...  

The human body follows a physiological rhythm in response to the day/night cycle which is synchronized with the circadian rhythm through internal clocks. Most cells in the human body, including skin cells, express autonomous clocks and the genes responsible for running those clocks. Melatonin, a ubiquitous small molecular weight hormone, is critical in regulating the sleep cycle and other functions in the body. Melatonin is present in the skin and, in this study, we showed that it has the ability to dose-dependently stimulate PER1 clock gene expression in normal human dermal fibroblasts and normal human epidermal keratinocytes. Then we further evaluated the role of MT-1 melatonin receptor in mediating melatonin actions on human skin using fibroblasts derived from young and old subjects. Using immunocytochemistry, Western blotting and RT-PCR, we confirmed the expression of MT-1 receptor in human skin fibroblasts and demonstrated a dramatic age-dependent decrease in its level in mature fibroblasts. We used siRNA technology to transiently knockdown MT-1 receptor in fibroblasts. In these MT-1 knockdown cells, UV-dependent oxidative stress (H2O2 production) was enhanced and DNA damage was also increased, suggesting a critical role of MT-1 receptor in protecting skin cells from UV-induced DNA damage. These studies demonstrate that the melatonin pathway plays a pivotal role in skin aging and damage. Moreover, its correlation with skin circadian rhythm may offer new approaches for decelerating skin aging by modulating the expression of melatonin receptors in human skin.


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