- A new study revealed a potential link between the skin microbiome and signs of skin aging.
- Researchers found the balance of good and bad bacteria can change transepidermal water loss, the moisture that evaporates through the skin.
- To optimize your skin microbiome health, limit the use of harsh ingredients such as salicylic acid.
Numerous factors contribute to skin aging, including environmental, genetics and lifestyle.
Researchers at the Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI) at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) and L’Oréal Research and Innovation discovered the skin microbiome could hold the key to understanding how the skin ages.
Their findings were recently published in Frontiers in Aging.
For the study, the research team analyzed 13 previous L’Oréal studies, which included skin clinical data of more than 1,000 female participants ages 18–70.
Researchers found a link between skin microbiome diversity and , generally viewed as a key sign of skin aging. They also found a negative association between microbiome diversity and transepidermal water loss, which is the moisture that evaporates through the skin.
“The most compelling aspect of the study was that there were indeed taxa that appeared to be linked to the grade of crow’s feet wrinkles, separate from age, despite the strong relationship between wrinkles and age,” Dr. Se Jin Song, the director of research at the UC San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation, told Medical News Today.
“This is an exciting starting point for further research that can help us definitively determine whether they actually play a role in the development of wrinkles and what that role might be,” she added.
While this study revealed specific microbes of interest, further research will focus on elucidating what role they might play in skin aging.
Dr. Jin Song posed the following questions: “Are they interacting with our skin cells in a particular way? Are they affecting other members of the skin…
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