Skin microbiome attributes associate with biophysical skin ageing

Abstract

Two major arms of skin ageing are changes in the skin's biophysical conditions and alterations in the skin microbiome. This work partitioned both arms to study their interaction in detail. Leveraging the resolution provided by shotgun metagenomics, we explored how skin microbial species, strains and gene content interact with the biophysical traits of the skin during ageing. With a dataset well‐controlled for confounding factors, we found that skin biophysical traits, especially the collagen diffusion coefficient, are associated with the composition and the functional potential of the skin microbiome, including the abundance of bacterial strains found in nosocomial infections and the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes. Our findings reveal important associations between skin biophysical features and ageing‐related changes in the skin microbiome and generate testable hypotheses for the mechanisms of such associations.

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 ).…”

Predicting Chronological Age via the Skin Volatile Profile

“…For years, biochemical, structural, and physical changes in aged-skin have been noted. In general, aging of human skin is driven by two processes: intrinsic processes, related to chronological aging, which occurs due to inherent genetics; and extrinsic processes, attributed to environmental and lifestyle factors, including UV exposure and diet. − Oxidative damage, caused by an increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the skin, is one of the general mechanisms through which skin aging occurs. − Age-associated exogeneous changes in the skin microbiome have been noted , where increased bacterial diversity across skin sites with increasing age has been observed. , Abundances of specific genera of bacteria such as Lactobacillus , Cutibacterium , and Corynebacterium have been shown to be altered with chronological age. , Other well-established physiological changes in aged-skin include an increased skin surface pH − and decreased water content and rates of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) …”

“…5−8 Age-associated exogeneous changes in the skin microbiome have been noted 9,10 where increased bacterial diversity across skin sites with increasing age has been observed. 11,12 Abundances of specific genera of bacteria such as Lactobacillus, Cutibacterium, and Corynebacterium have been shown to be altered with chronological age. 11,13 Other well-established physiological changes in aged-skin include an increased skin surface pH 14−18 and decreased water content and rates of transepidermal water loss (TEWL).…”

Bacteriophages from human skin infecting coagulase-negative Staphylococcus: diversity, novelty and host resistance

“…Differences in the relative abundance of the commensal CoNS species within the skin microbiota could reflect their relative competitive fitness concomitant with ageing-related changes of the skin 26 , 27 . The range of bacterially produced factors that influence the abundances of staphylococci on skin are partially understood with studies showing the importance of antimicrobials and secreted antagonist proteins and peptides 7 , 28 , 29 .…”