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Review
. 2017 Jun;137(6):1213-1214.
doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2016.11.045. Epub 2017 Apr 8.

Human Skin Is the Largest Epithelial Surface for Interaction with Microbes

Richard L Gallo  1
Affiliations
Review

Human Skin Is the Largest Epithelial Surface for Interaction with Microbes

Richard L Gallo. J Invest Dermatol. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Human skin contains an abundant and diverse population of microbial organisms. Many of these microbes inhabit follicular structures of the skin. Furthermore, numerous studies have shown that the interaction of some members of the skin microbiome with host cells will result in changes in cell function. However, estimates of the potential for the microbiome to influence human health through skin have ignored the inner follicular surface, and therefore vastly underestimated the potential of the skin microbiome to have a systemic effect on the human body. By calculating the surface area of follicular and the interfollicular epithelial surface it is shown that skin provides a vast interface for interactions with the microbiome.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Consultant and equity interest in Matrisys and Sente.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The surface area of skin has been miscalculated
Human skin is not a flat surface. The presence of approximately 5 million appendages such as hair follicles and sweat ducts greatly increases the epithelial surface area that is uniquely accessible to the microbiome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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