Understanding the microbial basis of body odor in pre-pubescent children and teenagers

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

30497517

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1186/s40168-018-0588-z

URI

Authors

Lam TH, Verzotto D, Brahma P, Ng AHQ, Hu P, Schnell D, Tiesman J, Kong R, Ton TMU, Li J, Ong M, Lu Y, Swaile D, Liu P, Liu J, Nagarajan N

Journal

Microbiome

Year

2018

BACKGROUND: Even though human sweat is odorless, bacterial growth and decomposition of specific odor precursors in it is believed to give rise to body odor in humans. While mechanisms of odor generation have been widely studied in adults, little is known for teenagers and pre-pubescent children who have distinct sweat composition from immature apocrine and sebaceous glands, but are arguably more susceptible to the social and psychological impact of malodor. RESULTS: We integrated information from whole microbiome analysis of multiple skin sites (underarm, neck, and head) and multiple time points (1 h and 8 h after bath), analyzing 180 samples in total to perform the largest metagenome-wide association study to date on malodor. Significant positive correlations were observed between odor intensity and the relative abundance of Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Cutibacterium avidum, as well as negative correlation with Acinetobacter schindleri and Cutibacterium species. Metabolic pathway analysis highlighted the association of isovaleric and acetic acid production (sour odor) from enriched S. epidermidis (teen underarm) and S. hominis (child neck) enzymes and sulfur production from Staphylococcus species (teen underarm) with odor intensity, in good agreement with observed odor characteristics in pre-pubescent children and teenagers. Experiments with cultures on human and artificial sweat confirmed the ability of S. hominis and S. epidermidis to independently produce malodor with distinct odor characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: These results showcase the power of skin metagenomics to study host-microbial co-metabolic interactions, identifying distinct pathways for odor generation from sweat in pre-pubescent children and teenagers and highlighting key enzymatic targets for intervention.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks, Davvve, ChiomaBlessing

Subjects

Location of subjects: Philippines

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Skin of body Entire integument,Entire skin,Integument,Integumental organ,Pelt,Skin,Skin organ,Skin of body,skin of body

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Body odor measurement body odour measurement,Body odor measurement,body odor measurement

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: head of child

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: head of teenager

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Malodor is a phenotype that is well known to arise from specific interactions between host-derived odor precursors and the microbial metabolism that they support

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 15

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 15

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: WMS

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: Not specified

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances