J Bacteriol Virol.  2017 Mar;47(1):41-53. 10.4167/jbv.2017.47.1.41.

Influence of Chemical- and Natural-Based Lotions on Bacterial Communities in Human Forearm Skin

• Park DH

• KMID: 2384419
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4167/jbv.2017.47.1.41

Abstract

Purpose
of this study was to evaluate the influence of a lotion on the bacterial community in the human forearm skin. The chemical- and natural-based lotions were applied on the left and right inner forearm skins, respectively, of 14 participants, who cleansed forearm skin using sterilized cotton swabs. The germs on cotton swabs were analyzed using libraries of PCR amplicons. The genetic diversity of the bacterial communities detected on the natural-based lotion-applied skin (NLS) was significantly higher than that of the bacterial communities on the chemical-based lotion-applied skin (CLS) in all participants, except two. The diversity was estimated based on operational taxonomic unit (OTU), Chao1, Shannon, and Simpson indices. Bacterial communities obtained from the CLS and NLS were phylogenetically separated into 5 and 3 monophyletic groups, respectively, based on lotion types. The taxonomic distribution of the bacterial communities, which were composed of 198 genera in 14 phyla in the CLS and NLS, respectively, was irregularly and biasedly separated into 2 groups based on the lotion types. Among the 14 phyla, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria were found to be relatively dominant, and 15 of the 198 genera, including Methylobacterium, Propionibacterium, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Bacillus were relatively dominant (>0.5%). The taxonomic distribution of dominant bacterial communities from CLS and NLS was irregularly and biasedly separated without relation to the lotion types. In conclusion, the chemical- and natural-based lotions were responsible for changing or influencing the genetic diversity, phylogenetic separation, and taxonomic distribution of skin bacterial communities.

Keyword

Human skin flora; Taxonomic diversity; Phylogenetic differentiation; Natural lotion

MeSH Terms

Actinobacteria
Bacillus
Bacteroidetes
Firmicutes
Forearm*
Genetic Variation
Humans*
Methylobacterium
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Propionibacterium
Proteobacteria
Pseudomonas
Skin*
Staphylococcus
Streptococcus

Figure

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  Figure 1. A gathering method of cotton swabs for protection or minimization of contamination from the participants' (samplers') hands

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  Figure 2. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree (dendrogram) of bacterial communities originated from the chemical-based lotion (1L~14L) and natural-based lotion (1R~14R)-applied skin of 14 participants based on pairwise Bray-Curtis similarity. Branch length in the tree is proportional to the numbers of nucleotide substitutions as measured by the scale bar (5% dissimilarity).

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  Figure 3. Distribution of the 16S rRNA gene sequences across bacterial phyla in 28 skin bacterial communities originated from chemical-based lotion (1L~14L) and natural-based lotion (1R~14R)-applied skin of 14 participants.

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  Figure 4. Distribution of the 16S rRNA gene sequences across bacterial genera in 28 skin bacterial communities originated from chemical-based lotion (1L~14L) and natural-based lotion (1R~14R)-applied skin of 14 participants.

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  Figure 5. Taxonomic diversity of bacterial genera (1 to 198) originated from chemical-based lotion (1L~14L) and natural-based lotion (1R~14R)-applied skin of 14 participants. Color bands are legends and genus names are explanation for taxonomic distribution in Figure 4. The average occupation rates of the relatively dominant genera (>0.5%) were quantitatively represented in parentheses.

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