Facial Skin Microbiome: Aging-Related Changes and Exploratory Functional Associations with Host Genetic Factors, a Pilot Study

Abstract

In this exploratory study, we investigate the variation in the facial skin microbiome architecture through aging and their functional association with host genetic factors in a cohort of healthy women, living in the same area and without cutaneous diseases. Notably, facial skin microbiota (SM) samples were collected from a cohort of 15 healthy Caucasian females, firstly divided into three age groups (younger women aged 20–35 years old; middle aged women of 36–52 years old; and older women aged 53–68 years old). Then, the recruited cohort was divided into two groups based on their facial hydration level (dry and normal skin). The facial SM revealed a different composition in the three analyzed aging groups and between normal and dry skins. The middle-aged women also revealed functional variations associated with collagen biosynthesis and oxidative stress damage repair. Otherwise, the association between selected host SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and the facial SM profile showed significant associations, suggesting a negative correlation with collagen metabolism and ROS damage protection. Finally, the composition and functionality of the facial SM seemed to affect the aging process through the two aging-correlated pathways of host ROS damage repair and collagen metabolism. Our exploratory data could be useful for future studies characterizing the structure, function, and dynamics of the SM in the aging process to design personalized therapeutic agents focusing on potential genomic targets, microbes, and their metabolites.

Menopause and facial skin microbiomes: a pilot study revealing novel insights into their relationship

“…Changes in skin microbiome diversity and composition at different taxonomic levels linked to ageing were described previously in several female cohort studies. However, mean age differences between examined old and young age groups in these studies were between 32 and 39 years ( Shibagaki et al, 2017 ; Somboonna et al, 2017 ; Jugé et al, 2018 ; Kim et al, 2019 ; Kim et al, 2022 ; Zhou et al, 2023 ), or examined age groups were multimodal distributed ( Howard et al, 2022 ; Russo et al, 2023 ). Ageing is a complex and multifactorial process, and the composition of the skin microflora can be influenced by age-dependent exposure time spans to environmental stressors and intrinsic factors ( Khmaladze et al, 2020 ), such as solar UV irradiation, particulate matter, cosmetic products, climate, nutritional ingredients, as well as individual genetic background, gender, menopause-associated hormonal changes and immune-senescence ( Cisneros et al, 2022 ).…”

“…These findings are interesting, even though a confirmation with higher subject number is required, in that inclusion of volunteers with irregular menstrual periods inaccurately in either pre- or postmenopausal groups may significantly impact respective microbial diversity calculations. Inappropriate inclusion of transmenopausal subjects in postmenopausal groups, as well as other confounding age-dependent and extrinsic factors may explain, why a minority of previous studies detected a trend towards higher bacterial diversity on face of younger volunteers ( Kim et al, 2019 ; Russo et al, 2023 ). Lastly, given that the average age of volunteers in our peri/menopausal group (45.8 ± 4 years) was similar to the directly compared premenopausal group (48.1 ± 3 years), further supports our hypothesis that the impact of menopausal-driven hormonal changes on facial microbiome composition may be more significant than age-dependent skin physiological adaptations.…”

Beverage consumption and facial skin aging: Evidence from Mendelian randomization analysis

“…The expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which are induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS), leads to the degradation of the ECM. 39,40 As collagen degrades, wrinkles deepen and skin elasticity decreases. 41 Additionally, it has been clarified that green coffee oil (GCO) stimulates human skin fibroblasts to synthesize ECM compounds.…”

Skin microbiota variation in Indian families

“…Study by Si et al (2015) on the skin microbiota diversity of monozygotic and dizygotic twins suggested that variation is due to host genetics, age, and skin pigmentations (Si et al, 2015). A recent study on facial skin microbiota investigated genetic factors that influence aging-related pathways causing skin microbial differences in healthy Italian women in three age groups (younger, middle-aged, and older) (Russo et al, 2023). However, an in-depth analysis of heritability of a skin microbiota across generations will require larger number of families and samples per generation.…”