UCSD: Healthy human skin is alive with bacteria. In fact, there are more
microorganisms living in and on the human body than there are human
cells. Most can live on the human skin without harming the host, but in
some people bacteria can negatively alter their health, maybe even
become life-threatening. University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers
screened 10,000 colonies of bacteria found on the epidermis to determine
how many had antimicrobial properties and at what rate these are found
on healthy and non-healthy skin. In a paper published February 22 in
Science Translational Medicine,
the team reports isolating and growing good bacteria that produce
antimicrobial peptides and successfully transplanting it to treat
patients with the most common type of eczema, known as atopic
dermatitis.
