title: Sebum and Hydration Levels in Specific Regions of Human Face Significantly Predict the Nature and Diversity of Facial Skin Microbiome.
abstract: The skin microbiome varies across individuals. The causes of these variations are inadequately understood. We tested the hypothesis that inter-individual variation in facial skin microbiome can be significantly explained by variation in sebum and hydration levels in specific facial regions of humans. We measured sebum and hydration from forehead and cheek regions of healthy female volunteers (n = 30). Metagenomic DNA from skin swabs were sequenced for V3-V5 regions of 16S rRNA gene. Altogether, 34 phyla were identified; predominantly Actinobacteria (66.3%), Firmicutes (17.7%), Proteobacteria (13.1%) and Bacteroidetes (1.4%). About 1000 genera were identified; predominantly Propionibacterium (58.6%), Staphylococcus (8.6%), Streptococcus (4.0%), Corynebacterium (3.6%) and Paracoccus (3.3%). A subset (n = 24) of individuals were sampled two months later. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that cheek sebum level was the most significant predictor of microbiome composition and diversity followed by forehead hydration level; forehead sebum and cheek hydration levels were not. With increase in cheek sebum, the prevalence of Actinobacteria (p = 0.001)/Propionibacterium (p = 0.002) increased, whereas microbiome diversity decreased (Shannon Index, p = 0.032); this was opposite for other phyla/genera. These trends were reversed for forehead hydration levels. Therefore, the nature and diversity of facial skin microbiome is jointly determined by site-specific lipid and water levels in the stratum corneum.
authors: BioMedical Genomics Centre, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.|National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
authors: Souvik
authors: S
authors: Mukherjee
authors: Unilever R&D, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors: Rupak
authors: R
authors: Mitra
authors: National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
authors: Arindam
authors: A
authors: Maitra
authors: Unilever R&D, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors: Satyaranjan
authors: S
authors: Gupta
authors: Unilever R&D, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors: Srikala
authors: S
authors: Kumaran
authors: Unilever R&D, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors: Amit
authors: A
authors: Chakrabortty
authors: National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
authors: Partha P
authors: PP
authors: Majumder
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D002610:Cheek / Q000382:microbiology*; D019641:DNA, Archaeal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005546:Forehead / Q000382:microbiology*; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics; D064307:Microbiota; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012629:Sebum / Q000378:metabolism*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014867:Water