Skip to content

Skin Health and the Microbiome

The role of the microbiome on the health of our skin. Including acne, dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, vitiligo, and more.

General:

Review, 2019: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/7/11/550/htm "In this review, we will discuss the relationship between the gut and skin microbiome and various dermatological diseases including acne, psoriasis, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis. In addition, we will discuss the impact of treatment on the microbiome and the role of probiotics"

Review, 2018: The Gut Microbiome as a Major Regulator of the Gut-Skin Axis: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01459/full

Review, 2018: The Cutaneous Microbiome and Wounds: New Molecular Targets to Promote Wound Healing http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/9/2699/htm

Review, 2017: The role of microbiota, and probiotics and prebiotics in skin health: https://archive.fo/Q4GsF

Microbial guardians of skin health (2019): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6424/227 "Here, we focus on Staphylococcus epidermidis as a “poster child” of the skin microbiota to illustrate the remarkable diversity of functions a microbe can exert on skin physiology and health"

Minor taxa in human skin microbiome contribute to the personal identification (2018): http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199947

Ultraviolet radiation, both UVA and UVB, influences the composition of the skin microbiome (2018): https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13854

The human skin microbiota is a rich source of bacteriocin producing staphylococci which kill human pathogens. (2018): https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiy241

Heterogeneity/variability across skin sites: Microbial and transcriptional differences elucidate atopic dermatitis heterogeneity across skin sites (Oct 2020) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.14606

Impact of gut microbiome:

Probiotic Bacteria Induce a ‘Glow of Health’ (mice) (2013), (2014).

MAVS deficiency induces gut dysbiotic microbiota conferring a proallergic phenotype (mice, 2018): https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1722372115 "Collectively, we unveiled an unexpected impact of RIG-I–like signaling on the gut microbiota with consequences on allergic skin disease outcome. Primarily, these data indicate that manipulating the gut microbiota may help in the development of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of human allergic skin pathologies"

Intestinal inflammation alters the antigen-specific immune response to a skin commensal (May 2022, mice) https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)00666-0

Acne:

The Fungal Acne Treatment Bible (2020): Cure Malassezia With Science! https://simpleskincarescience.com/pityrosporum-folliculitis-treatment-malassezia-cure/

Acne vulgaris patients have a distinct gut microbiota in comparison with healthy controls (2017): http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(17)32017-1/fulltext

Gut microbiota alterations in moderate to severe acne vulgaris patients (2018): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1346-8138.14586

Contrary to what was previously thought, proliferation of P. acnes is not the trigger of acne as patients with acne do not harbour more P. acnes in follicles than normal individuals. Instead, the loss of the skin microbial diversity together with the activation of the innate immunity might lead to this chronic inflammatory condition (2018): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jdv.15043

Isotretinoin and lymecycline treatments modify the skin microbiota in acne. This study provides insight into the skin microbiota in acne and how it is modulated by systemic acne treatment. https://archive.fo/CUDaW

Minocycline for Acne Changes Skin Microbiota (Feb 2019): https://www.medpagetoday.com/dermatology/generaldermatology/78078. Association of Systemic Antibiotic Treatment of Acne With Skin Microbiota Characteristics. Antibiotics for Acne—A Pilot Study of Collateral Damage to the Skin Microbiome.

Dermatitis:

Review, 2018: Microbiome in the Gut-Skin Axis in Atopic Dermatitis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6021588/

Washed microbiota transplantation: a case report of clinical success with skin and gut microbiota improvement in an adolescent boy with atopic dermatitis (Nov 2023) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1275427/full

Gut microbiota restoration through fecal microbiota transplantation: a new atopic dermatitis therapy (May 2021, mice) https://www.nature.com/articles/s12276-021-00627-6

Clinical efficacy of fecal microbial transplantation treatment in adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (Dec 2021, n=9) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iid3.570 4 FMTs. 50% and 75% decrease was achieved by 7 (77%) and 4 (44%) patients.

Supplemental feeding of a gut microbial metabolite of linoleic acid, 10-hydroxy-cis-12-octadecenoic acid, alleviates spontaneous atopic dermatitis and modulates intestinal microbiota in NC/nga mice: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09637486.2017.1318116

In this study we found that rural South African children had a high relative abundance of Prevotella copri which was linked to diet and protective for atopic dermatitis (2018): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2018.11.034

Gut microbiota dysbiosis has been shown to precede the onset of AD https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41149-6#ref-CR25. In our study (Mar 2019), we identified some OTUs associated with AD. Our results revealed that AD GM is characterised by low colonisation of OTUs that have a role in the maintenance of gut health, like Actinomyces and Eggerthella.

A Microbiome-Based Index for Assessing Skin Health and Treatment Effects for Atopic Dermatitis in Children (Aug 2019) https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mSystems.00293-19

Eczema:

Review, 2016: The microbiome and atopic eczema: More than skin deep. We emphasize that the microbiome of separate systems, including the gut, has a significant role to play in the manifestation of this cutaneous disorder. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajd.12435/full

Case Report: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for the Treatment of Generalized Eczema Occurring After COVID-19 Vaccination (Jan 2024) https://www.dovepress.com/case-report-fecal-microbiota-transplantation-for-the-treatment-of-gene-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-CCID

Immune-modulatory genomic properties differentiate gut microbiota of infants with and without eczema: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0184955

Eczema-associated bacteria may be kept in check by a different microbe https://www.newscientist.com/article/2201439-eczema-associated-bacteria-may-be-kept-in-check-by-a-different-microbe. Quorum sensing between bacterial species on the skin protects against epidermal injury in atopic dermatitis (May 2019): https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/490/eaat8329

"Twice weekly for three months and every other day for an additional month, children or their caregivers sprayed a solution of sugar water containing live Roseomonas mucosa onto areas of skin with eczema. Most children in the study experienced substantial improvements in their skin and overall wellbeing following R. mucosa therapy." (Sep 2020, n=20) https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/probiotic-skin-therapy-improves-eczema-children-nih-study-suggests

Psoriasis:

Review, Jul 2022: Gut Microbiota in Psoriasis https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/14/2970/htm

Review, Nov 2020: Gut–Brain–Skin Axis in Psoriasis: A Review https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13555-020-00466-9

Review, Jul 2020: The cutaneous and intestinal microbiome in psoriatic disease https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521661620304332

Intestinal dysbiosis exacerbates the pathogenesis of psoriasis-like phenotype through changes in fatty acid metabolism (Jan 2023, mice) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01219-0

Crucial Role of Microbiota in Experimental Psoriasis Revealed by a Gnotobiotic Mouse Model (Feb 2019): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6394148/ "The present findings provide evidence that intestinal and skin microbiota directly regulates imiquimod-induced skin inflammation (IISI) and emphasizes the importance of microbiota in the pathogenesis of psoriasis"

Intestinal microbiota profiling and predicted metabolic dysregulation in psoriasis patients (2018): https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.13786

Is psoriasis a bowel disease? Successful treatment with bile acids and bioflavonoids suggests it is (2018): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738081X18300476

Vitiligo:

Dysbiosis of gut microbiota by ampicillin exacerbates vitiligo http://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(17)31035-7/fulltext