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Our personal skin microbes highly stable: study

Xinhua, May 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The microbial communities living on your skin are highly stable over time, even if you wash regularly or contact with bacteria-laden object, a U.S. study said Thursday.

The finding could be applied to better understand a wide range of human skin disorders through the development of prebiotic, probiotic, and microbial transplantation approaches, according to the study published in the U.S. journal Cell.

"While much more research is needed, this finding is one step in helping us understand what microbes are present on healthy human skin," study author Heidi Kong of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, told Xinhua.

"Then, we can further study what microbes may or may not be doing to us."

Human skin is an ecosystem composed of a wide range of habitats for bacteria, fungi, and viruses, also known as microbiome.

While most of these microbes are harmless or beneficial, some have been linked to skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema.

There is great interest in studying microbes to eventually determine if they can be manipulated to promote human health.

In the new study, Kong and colleagues collected skin samples from 12 healthy individuals at 17 different skin sites and swabbed each person at three time points, ranging from about one month to two years.

Then, the researchers sequenced the samples to investigate if the skin microbial communities change or are stable over time.

"Surprisingly, we observed that the skin microbial communities were highly stable over time, even though these individuals were exposed to other individuals, clothing, environments, etc," Kong said.

Some sites, such as oily sites on the back and in the ear, were very stable; whereas, other sites like the feet were less stable over time, she said.

The stability of the skin microbial communities also depended on the individual, they found.

In future studies, Kong and colleagues planned to study patients with skin diseases to see how the patients may differ from healthy individuals.

"As a dermatologist, I see patients who have many skin diseases," she said. "Our hope is that we and others can build upon our work to better understand skin diseases and to potentially develop new treatments." Enditem