No abstract

BackgroundFor personalized skin care, noninvasive quantitative methods to evaluate facial skin characteristics are important. Janus‐III is one of the most widely used imaging analysis devices in the skin care industry in Korea. Janus‐III generates values for a range of skin characteristics. Due to the convenience of obtaining results for a variety of skin characteristics in a single measurement, the use of Janus‐III in cosmetic stores and research institutes has been recently increasing. However, the consistency of skin measurements of Janus‐III has not been elucidated yet.Materials and MethodsIn this study, we repeated skin measurements three times for 70 different subjects and compared each numerical value in order to assess the consistency of the Janus‐III. For this purpose, we compared between‐sample distances and within‐sample distances.ResultsWe found important patterns for future analyses in terms of consistency. First, the average values of skin measurement categories were more reliable than individual part values of facial segments. Second, center part values such as forehead and nose were more reliable than side part values such as left and right part segments.ConclusionIf researchers who use Janus‐III for studies of facial characteristics analyze average and center part values first, they can obtain relatively reliable patterns of facial skin characteristics.

No abstract

Cutibacterium acnes, one of the most abundant skin microbes found in the sebaceous gland, is known to contribute to the development of acne vulgaris when its strains become imbalanced. The current limitations of acne treatment using antibiotics have caused an urgent need to develop a systematic strategy for selectively targeting C. acnes, which can be achieved by characterizing their cellular behaviors under various skin environments. To this end, we developed a genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) of virulent C. acnes, iCA843, based on the genome information of a relevant strain from ribotype 5 to comprehensively understand the pathogenic traits of C. acnes in the skin environment. We validated the model qualitatively by demonstrating its accuracy prediction of propionate and acetate production patterns, which were consistent with experimental observations. Additionally, we identified unique biosynthetic pathways for short-chain fatty acids in C. acnes compared to other GEMs of acne-inducing skin pathogens. By conducting constraint-based flux analysis under endogenous carbon sources in human skin, we discovered that the Wood-Werkman cycle is highly activated under acnes-associated skin condition for the regeneration of NAD, resulting in enhanced propionate production. Finally, we proposed potential anti-C. acnes targets by using the model-guided systematic framework based on gene essentiality analysis and protein sequence similarity search with abundant skin microbiome taxa.

No abstract