Temporal stability of the healthy human skin microbiome following dead sea climatotherapy

Michael Brandwein, Garold Fuks, Avigail Israel, Ashraf Al-Ashhab, Deborah Nejman, Ravid Straussman, Emmilia Hodak, Marco Harari, Doron Steinberg, Zvi Bentwich, Noam Shental, Shiri Meshner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Dead Sea climatotherapy (DSC) is a therapeutic modality for a variety of chronic skin conditions, yet there has been scarce research on the relationship between the cutaneous microbiota and disease states in response to DSC. We characterized the skin bacterial and fungal microbiome of healthy volunteers who underwent DSC. Bacterial community diversity remained similar before and after treatment, while fungal diversity was significantly reduced as a result of the treatment. Individuals showed greater inter-individual than temporal bacterial community variance, yet the opposite was true for fungal community composition. We further identified Malassezia as the genus driving temporal mycobiome variations. The results indicate that the microbiome remains stable throughout DSC, while the mycobiome undergoes dramatic community changes. The results of this study will serve as an important baseline for future investigations of microbiome and mycobiome temporal phenomena in diseased states.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)256-261
Number of pages6
JournalActa Dermato-Venereologica
Volume98
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was approved by the Helsinki Committee of the Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel (Approval Number 0153-12-RMC). Volunteers provided written informed consent prior to participating in the study. This study was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology Grant 3-11174 and by the Norwegian Dead Sea Medical Foundation. Michael Brandwein is a recipient of the Kaete Klausner Fellowship. Conflict of interest: MH serves as medical director of the DMZ Medical Center. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the volunteers who participated in this study. In addition, we acknowledge Shira Wax and Ira Mezin for assisting in ethics approval and planning. Dr Miriam Kott, Dr Idit Shiff and Dr Abed Nasereddin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Genomic Applications Laboratory provided sequencing support. This study was approved by the Helsinki Committee of the Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel (Approval Number 0153-12-RMC). Volunteers provided written informed consent prior to participating in the study. This study was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology Grant 3-11174 and by the Norwegian Dead Sea Medical Foundation. Michael Brandwein is a recipient of the Kaete Klausner Fellowship. Conflict of interest: MH serves as medical director of the DMZ Medical Center. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Acta Dermato-Venereologica.

Keywords

  • Climatotherapy
  • Skin microbiome
  • Skin mycobiome

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