Human Skin Volatiles: A Review

Dormont, Laurent; Bessière, Jean‐Marie; Cohuet, Anna

doi:10.1007/s10886-013-0286-z

Cited by 200 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Our group has recently demonstrated the potential of VOCs for skin physiology and SBF research where discriminating volatile emissions were observed before and after acute barrier disruption [22]. Collection and analysis of VOCs from skin is commonly achieved using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) [23] in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [24] owing to the sensitivity of mass spectrometry, and the ease of performing headspace (HS) sampling with SPME.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Invasive Assessment of Skin Barrier Properties: Investigating Emerging Tools for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications

et al. 2017

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Abstract:There is increasing interest in the development of non-invasive tools for studying the properties of skin, due to the potential for non-destructive sampling, reduced ethical concerns and the potential comparability of results in vivo and in vitro. The present research focuses on the use of a range of non-invasive approaches for studying skin and skin barrier properties in human skin and human skin equivalents (HSE). Analytical methods used include pH measurements, electrical sensing of the epidermis and detection of volatile metabolic skin products. Standard probe based measurements of pH and the tissue dielectric constant (TDC) are used. Two other more novel approaches that utilise wearable platforms are also demonstrated here that can assess the electrical properties of skin and to profile skin volatile species. The potential utility of these wearable tools that permit repeatability of testing and comparability of results is considered through application of our recently reported impedance-based tattoo sensors and volatile samplers on both human participants and HSEs. The HSE exhibited a higher pH (6.5) and TDC (56) than human skin (pH 4.9-5.6, TDC 29-36), and the tattoo sensor revealed a lower impedance signal for HSEs, suggesting the model could maintain homeostasis, but in a different manner to human skin, which demonstrated a more highly resistive barrier. Characterisation of volatiles showed a variety of compound classes emanating from skin, with 16 and 27 compounds identified in HSEs and participants respectively. The continuing development of these tools offers potential for improved quality and relevance of data, and potential for detection of changes that are undetectable in traditional palpable and visual assessments, permitting early detection of irritant reactions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Invasive Assessment of Skin Barrier Properties: Investigating Emerging Tools for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications

et al. 2017

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“…Various sampling methods have been used to analyse human skin volatiles (for review, see Dormont et al, 2013), such as solvent extraction of sweat samples or headspace collection of airborne skin volatiles onto adsorbent traps, usually following preliminary absorption on gauze or cotton pads, or sometimes on clothes that have been worn. Solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) is a simple, sensitive, solvent-free technique originally developed for the monitoring of air pollutants and later extended to the sampling of volatiles from living organisms (Musteata and Pawliszyn, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New methods for field collection of human skin volatiles and perspectives for their application in the chemical ecology of human/pathogen/vector interactions

Dormont

Bessière

McKey

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYOdours emitted by human skin are of great interest to biologists in many fields, with practical applications in forensics, health diagnostic tools and the ecology of blood-sucking insect vectors of human disease. Convenient methods are required for sampling human skin volatiles under field conditions. We experimentally compared four modern methods for sampling skin odours: solvent extraction, headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME), and two new techniques not previously used for the study of mammal volatiles, contact SPME and dynamic headspace with a chromatoprobe design. These methods were tested and compared both on European subjects under laboratory conditions and on young African subjects under field conditions. All four methods permitted effective trapping of skin odours, including the major known human skin volatile compounds. In both laboratory and field experiments, contact SPME, in which the time of collection was restricted to 3min, provided results very similar to those obtained with classical headspace SPME, a method that requires 45min of collection. Chromatoprobe sampling also proved to be very sensitive, rapid and convenient for the collection of human-produced volatiles in natural settings. Both contact SPME and chromatoprobe design may considerably facilitate the study of human skin volatiles under field conditions, opening new possibilities for examining the olfactory cues mediating the host-seeking behaviour of mosquito vectors implicated in the transmission of major diseases.

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“…There is currently uncertainty concerning the nature of the odorants conveying such effects, and individual androstenes have been intensively assessed for their particular and specific influence on behavior (Havlicek et al, 2010;Wyatt and, 2015). We concede that androstenes are just one set of compounds within a much larger and complex mixture (e.g., Curran et al, 2005;Gallagher et al, 2008;Dormont et al, 2013), and therefore we do not wish to make claims about whether the effects reported in the literature are exclusively produced by androstenes. Other types of odorants present in the body odor mixture need indeed to be tested.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to Androstenes Influences Processing of Emotional Words

et al. 2018

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There is evidence that human-produced androstenes affect attitudinal, emotional, and physiological states in a context-dependent manner, suggesting that they could be involved in modulating social interactions. For instance, androstadienone appears to increase attention specifically to emotional information. Most of the previous work focused on one or two androstenes. Here, we tested whether androstenes affect linguistic processing, using three different androstene compounds. Participants (90 women and 77 men) performed a lexical decision task after being exposed to an androstene or to a control treatment (all compounds were applied on the philtrum). We tested effects on three categories of target words, varying in emotional valence: positive, competitive, and neutral words (e.g., hope, war, and century, respectively). Results show that response times were modulated by androstene treatment and by emotional valence of words. Androstenone, but not androstadienone and androstenol, significantly slowed down the reaction time to words with competitive valence. Moreover, men exposed to androstenol showed a significantly reduced error rate, although men tended to make more errors than women in general. This suggests that these androstenes modulate the processing of emotional words, namely some particular lexical emotional content may become more salient under the effect of androstenes.

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Human Skin Volatiles: A Review

Cited by 200 publications

References 87 publications

Non-Invasive Assessment of Skin Barrier Properties: Investigating Emerging Tools for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications

Non-Invasive Assessment of Skin Barrier Properties: Investigating Emerging Tools for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications

New methods for field collection of human skin volatiles and perspectives for their application in the chemical ecology of human/pathogen/vector interactions

Exposure to Androstenes Influences Processing of Emotional Words

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