One of the lesser explored research areas is the influence factors such as personal care products, cosmetics, and everyday routines have on skin microbiota. This study investigated the effects of propylene glycol, a widely used ingredient in cosmetics and self-care products, on a staphylococcal system ubiquitously distributed on human skin. The system, comprised of Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Staphylococcus aureus, comes from a healthy donor, devoid of any skin afflictions. Because Staphylococcus aureus is part of this microbial community, it was of great interest to contribute to the understanding of the manner in which its growth is kept in check. To fulfill this task, a new methodology was developed. Purposely intended to be facile and easily scalable in laboratories around the world, it can be used for the study of microbial systems of variable dimensions alone or with the complementary use of other methods. Results indicate that the effects of propylene glycol are complex, as it acts on the skin, the resident microbiota, and at the microbiota-skin interface. Commensals such as Staphylococcus hominis and Staphylococcus epidermidis seem to have synergy of action with propylene glycol, increasing each other’s power in reducing the number of viable colonies of Staphylococcus aureus. Lastly, results seem to also reveal the incompletely understood role of Staphylococcus hominis on human skin. While Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus ravenously compete with each other, it is the contribution of Staphylococcus hominis that seems to limit the latter’s overgrowing. This speaks volumes of the extent, complexities, and unknowns of microbial interactions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-67186 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Vasiliu, Alina |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för biomedicinsk vetenskap (BMV) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds