The Effects of Lakitelek Thermal Water and Tap Water on Skin Microbiome, a Randomized Control Pilot Study

Abstract

The beneficial effects of balneotherapy have been proven by numerous clinical studies on locomotor disorders. To date, there is only scant data on changes in the microbiome system of the skin during balneotherapy. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of thermal water and tap water on the skin's microbiome in healthy volunteers. 30 healthy female volunteers participated in the study. The experimental group (of 15 women) spent 30-min 10 times, in Gabriella Spring's thermal baths (i.e., mineral water containing sodium hydrogen carbonate).The controlled group (15 women) had the same, but in tap water. The results of this study have proven that there is a difference in the influencing effects of tap water and medicinal water on the microbiome of the skin. After bathing in the thermal water of Lakitelek, Deinococcus increased significantly at the genus level, and the tendency for Rothia mucilaginosa bacteria also increased. At the species level, Rothia mucilaginosa increased significantly, while Paracoccus aminovorans and the tendency for Paracoccus marcusii decreased. When the values of the two trial groups after bathing at the genus level were compared, Rothia bacteria increased significantly, while Haemophilus tended to increase, Pseudomonas tended to decrease, Neisseria tended to increase significantly, and Flavobacterium tended to decrease. At the species level, Geobacillus vulcani decreased significantly, and the tendency for Burkholderia gladioli decreased. The growth of Rothia mucilaginosa and the decrease in the tendency of Paracoccus, Pseudomonas, Flavobacteroium, and Burkholderia gladioli confirm the beneficial effect of balneotherapy. In this study, trends are represented by the uncorrected p value. The main result was that the thermal water changed certain bacteria of the skin, both on the genus and species levels, but there were no significant changes in the tap water used, either at the genus or species level. We first compared the worlds of thermal water and tap water's microbiome systems. The thermal water decreased the number of certain inflammatory infectious agents and could enhance some of their positive effects, which have been proven at the molecular level. Our results can provide an important clue in the treatment of certain skin diseases. The research of the skin microbiome during balneotherapy can be one of the most intriguing and exciting topics of the future and can bring us closer to understanding the mechanism of action of balneotherapy.

Keywords: balneotherapy; microbiome; next generation sequencing; sodium hydrogen carbonate; thermal water.

Figure 1

Distribution of differences at Shannon-diversity of patients before and after treatment at the species level. Colors indicate the two treatment groups Control (red) and Thermal water (blue).

Figure 2

Distribution of differences at Shannon-diversity of patients before and after treatment at the genus level. Colors indicate the two treatment groups Control (red) and Thermal water (blue).

Figure 3

Beta-diversity of patients denoted by Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and presented through NMDS ordination at the species level after treatment. Colors indicate the treatment groups (red = Control, blue = Thermal water).

Figure 4

Beta-diversity of patients denoted by Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and presented through NMDS ordination at the genus level after treatment. Colors indicate the treatment groups (red = Control, blue = Thermal water).

Figure 5

Relative distribution of the core genera found in our analysis. Separate quarters indicate the data from patients before (Before) and after (After) the treatment for each groups (Control and Thermal water groups, respectively).

Figure 6

Relative distribution of the core species found in our analysis. Separate quarters indicate the data from patients before (Before) and after (After) the treatment for each groups (Control and Thermal water groups, respectively).