A Journey on the Skin Microbiome: Pitfalls and Opportunities

The human skin microbiota is essential for maintaining homeostasis and ensuring barrier functions. Over the years, the characterization of its composition and taxonomic diversity has reached outstanding goals, with more than 10 million bacterial genes collected and cataloged. Nevertheless, the study of the skin microbiota presents specific challenges that need to be addressed in study design. Benchmarking procedures and reproducible and robust analysis workflows for increasing comparability among studies are required. For various reasons and because of specific technical problems, these issues have been investigated in gut microbiota studies, but they have been largely overlooked for skin microbiota. After a short description of the skin microbiota, the review tackles methodological aspects and their pitfalls, covering NGS approaches and high throughput culture-based techniques. Recent insights into the “core” and “transient” types of skin microbiota and how the manipulation of these communities can prevent or combat skin diseases are also covered. Finally, this review includes an overview of the main dermatological diseases, the changes in the microbiota composition associated with them, and the recommended skin sampling procedures. The last section focuses on topical and oral probiotics to improve and maintain skin health, considering their possible applications for skin diseases.

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Profiling Skin Microbiome in Healthy Young Adult Representing Javanese, Papuans, and Chinese Descent in Indonesia

HAYATI Journal of Biosciences ◽

10.4308/hjb.28.4.249-261 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 249-261

Author(s):

Stella Vania ◽

Amarila Malik

Keyword(s):

Skin Diseases ◽

Geographical Location ◽

Alpha Diversity ◽

Ethnic Origin ◽

Skin Microbiome ◽

Microbiota Composition ◽

Skin Microbiota ◽

Pathogen Invasion ◽

Chinese Descent ◽

Microbiome Research

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.

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Features of the Skin Microbiota in Common Inflammatory Skin Diseases

Life ◽

10.3390/life11090962 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 962

Author(s):

Iva Ferček ◽

Liborija Lugović-Mihić ◽

Arjana Tambić-Andrašević ◽

Diana Ćesić ◽

Ana Gverić Grginić ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Skin Diseases ◽

Seborrheic Dermatitis ◽

Bacterial Species ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Skin Microbiome ◽

Bacterial Strains ◽

Skin Microbiota ◽

Inflammatory Skin Diseases ◽

Bacterial Microbiome ◽

Inflammatory Skin

Many relatively common chronic inflammatory skin diseases manifest on the face (seborrheic dermatitis, rosacea, acne, perioral/periorificial dermatitis, periocular dermatitis, etc.), thereby significantly impairing patient appearance and quality of life. Given the yet unexplained pathogenesis and numerous factors involved, these diseases often present therapeutic challenges. The term “microbiome” comprises the totality of microorganisms (microbiota), their genomes, and environmental factors in a particular environment. Changes in human skin microbiota composition and/or functionality are believed to trigger immune dysregulation, and consequently an inflammatory response, thereby playing a potentially significant role in the clinical manifestations and treatment of these diseases. Although cultivation methods have traditionally been used in studies of bacterial microbiome species, a large number of bacterial strains cannot be grown in the laboratory. Since standard culture-dependent methods detect fewer than 1% of all bacterial species, a metagenomic approach could be used to detect bacteria that cannot be cultivated. The skin microbiome exhibits spatial distribution associated with the microenvironment (sebaceous, moist, and dry areas). However, although disturbance of the skin microbiome can lead to a number of pathological conditions and diseases, it is still not clear whether skin diseases result from change in the microbiome or cause such a change. Thus far, the skin microbiome has been studied in atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis, acne, and rosacea. Studies on the possible association between changes in the microbiome and their association with skin diseases have improved the understanding of disease development, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The identification of the bacterial markers associated with particular inflammatory skin diseases would significantly accelerate the diagnostics and reduce treatment costs. Microbiota research and determination could facilitate the identification of potential causes of skin diseases that cannot be detected by simpler methods, thereby contributing to the design and development of more effective therapies.

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Human Skin Microbiome: Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Skin Microbiota

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9030543 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 543

Author(s):

Krzysztof Skowron ◽

Justyna Bauza-Kaszewska ◽

Zuzanna Kraszewska ◽

Natalia Wiktorczyk-Kapischke ◽

Katarzyna Grudlewska-Buda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Skin ◽

Skin Diseases ◽

The Body ◽

Skin Microbiome ◽

Skin Microbiota ◽

Extrinsic Factors ◽

Microorganism Identification ◽

Mutual Relations ◽

Internal And External Factors ◽

The Impact

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.

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Characterization of Skin Microbiome Profile and it's Correlation to Radiation Dermatitis

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct04268056 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Radiation Dermatitis ◽

Skin Microbiome ◽

Microbiome Profile

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Isolation and Molecular Characterization of the Romaine Lettuce Phylloplane Mycobiome

Journal of Fungi ◽

10.3390/jof7040277 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 277

Author(s):

Danny Haelewaters ◽

Hector Urbina ◽

Samuel Brown ◽

Shannon Newerth-Henson ◽

M. Catherine Aime

Keyword(s):

Lactuca Sativa ◽

New Combinations ◽

Food Spoilage ◽

Human Pathogens ◽

Plant Leaves ◽

Romaine Lettuce ◽

Future Studies ◽

The Core ◽

American Agriculture

Romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an important staple of American agriculture. Unlike many vegetables, romaine lettuce is typically consumed raw. Phylloplane microbes occur naturally on plant leaves; consumption of uncooked leaves includes consumption of phylloplane microbes. Despite this fact, the microbes that naturally occur on produce such as romaine lettuce are for the most part uncharacterized. In this study, we conducted culture-based studies of the fungal romaine lettuce phylloplane community from organic and conventionally grown samples. In addition to an enumeration of all such microbes, we define and provide a discussion of the genera that form the “core” romaine lettuce mycobiome, which represent 85.5% of all obtained isolates: Alternaria, Aureobasidium, Cladosporium, Filobasidium, Naganishia, Papiliotrema, Rhodotorula, Sampaiozyma, Sporobolomyces, Symmetrospora and Vishniacozyma. We highlight the need for additional mycological expertise in that 23% of species in these core genera appear to be new to science and resolve some taxonomic issues we encountered during our work with new combinations for Aureobasidiumbupleuri and Curvibasidium nothofagi. Finally, our work lays the ground for future studies that seek to understand the effect these communities may have on preventing or facilitating establishment of exogenous microbes, such as food spoilage microbes and plant or human pathogens.

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