ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Symbioses
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1504054
Analysis of Microbial Composition in Different Dry Skin Areas of Beijing Women
Provisionally accepted
Jingtao Wang1
Benyue Li2Yuanman Zhang1Wei Ma1
Ting Jia1Jie Yang2Yexiang Zhang2Fengwei Qi2
Yan Jia1Liya Song1*- 1北京工商大学, 北京市, China
- 2Shandong Huahuitang Biotechnology Co., Ltd., shanghai, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The composition of the skin microbiota is shaped by the interaction of multiple factors, with area-specific changes and physiological characteristics in the skin having the most profound impact. The back of the hand and lower leg are two dry areas of human skin. Whether their microbial compositions are consistent, as well as the changes in skin microbiota at these two areas among individuals with dry skin, warrant further discussion. In this study, 16S rRNA sequencing technology was used to analyze the differences of microbiota in dry skin areas of 54 young women and their changes in dry populations. Analysis of physiological parameters showed that Hydration, TEWL and sebum secretion were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in the lower leg compared to the back of the hand. Hydration was significantly lower (P < 0.05) at the same skin area in the dry-skinned population compared to the healthy population. Regarding microbial composition, the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria was significantly higher on the lower leg compared to the back of the hand, whereas the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota was notably greater on the back of the hand than on the lower leg.(P < 0.05). Compared to the lower leg, the back of the hand showed a higher relative abundance of Cutibacterium (34.19% vs. 8.68%) , whereas the lower leg was predominantly colonised by Streptococcus (17% vs. 13.76%) . At the genus level, the relative abundance of Streptococcus was significantly increased in the dry skin group, whereas a decreasing trend was observed for Cutibacterium . Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that Streptococcus was negatively correlated with Hydration, TEWL, and sebum, and vice versa for Cutibacterium. These findings suggest that differences in skin microbiota are primarily influenced by a combination of skin area microenvironmental factors and not solely dependent on dryness status, suggesting that area-specific ecological niche design should be taken into account when conducting clinical interventions.
Keywords: Dry skin, Women, Skin microbiota, Hand, Lower leg
Received: 01 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Li, Zhang, Ma, Jia, Yang, Zhang, Qi, Jia and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liya Song, 北京工商大学, 北京市, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.