When we talk about people, each other, we often discuss all of the differences we have—the way we look, the way we think, our personalities, the list could go on and on. Clearly, we’re completely different from each other—or does it just appear that way? Think back to your middle/high school science class days. We were taught that humans are 99.9% genetically similar to each other. The small .1% makes a huge difference in our appearance, however, right beneath the skin we are all the same.
The outer layer of our skin is referred to as the epidermis. This is the portion of skin that we can physically see when we look at one another, the bacterial microbiome of the epidermis does, in fact, vary from person to person. Age, and gender play a huge role in the appearance of the epidermis—we know that the skin of an elderly person looks very different than that of a young adult. However, if you dig a little deeper to the layer of skin beneath the epidermis called the dermis, the bacterial microbiome is the same for every person. Any age, any gender, we are all the same. The study conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen used skin samples of knees and hips from patients who were undergoing surgery, all of the patients involved did not have any infection before surgery and were generally healthy—the bacterial microbiome of the dermis from all the samples were the same!
This information is important because bacteria is one of the main factors in many different skin disorders. Understanding the bacterial microbiome of the dermis will allow scientists and researchers to further study, understand, and even cure or prevent certain skin disorders. “It is important that we drop the assumption that we are all different, and that the microbiome of the skin does not matter very much. We do know that bacteria play a major role in skin disorders. Therefore, we need to understand the bacteria and the skin in its three dimensions,” says co-author Thomas Bjarnsholt, Professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen.
“It is important that we drop the assumption that we are all different…”
Click the link for the full article! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212104733.htm
University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. “Right beneath the skin we all have the same bacteria.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 February 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases
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