Probiotics have been extensively reviewed for decades, emphasizing on improving general gut health. Recently, more studies showed that probiotics may exert other health-promoting effects beyond gut well-being, attributed to the rise of the gut-brain axis correlations. Some of these new benefits include skin health such as improving atopic eczema, atopic dermatitis, healing of burn and scars, skin-rejuvenating properties and improving skin innate immunity. Increasing evidence has also showed that bacterial compounds such as cell wall fragments, their metabolites and dead bacteria can elicit certain immune responses on the skin and improve skin barrier functions. This review aimed to underline the mechanisms or the exact compounds underlying the benefits of bacterial extract on the skin based on evidences from in vivo and in vitro studies. This review could be of help in screening of probiotic strains with potential dermal enhancing properties for topical applications.
The use of tissue adhesives has been widely studied since the 1960s. Since then they have found use in specialties like plastic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT surgery and dental surgery. Several papers have reported their safe use, both clinically and experimentally, particularly of the newer homologue n-butyl/2-cyanoacrylate (Histoacryl). In this study 43 patients (46 wounds) whose operations involved a groin incision were randomised into two groups for skin closure either with Dexon subcuticular suture (23 wounds) or Histoacryl glue (23 wounds). We found that both sets of wounds healed well with no wound infections or excessive inflammation when assessed at one week and four weeks. However the glued wounds had consistently better cosmesis scores (mean score 4.71 at four weeks) compared to the subcuticular Dexon wounds (mean score 4.00 at four weeks) and P value of less than 0.05. We feel that there is a place for tissue adhesives in skin closure for some general surgical wounds.
The effects of locally produced chitosan (CPSRT-NC-bicarbonate) in the intervention of keloid pathogenesis were investigated in vitro. A human keratinocyte-fibroblast co-culture model was established to investigate the protein levels of human collagen type-I, III and V in a western blotting analysis, the secreted transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the mRNA levels of TGF-β1's intracellular signaling molecules (SMAD2, 3, 4 and 7) in a real-time PCR analysis. Keratinocyte-fibroblast co-cultures were maintained in DKSFM:DMEM:F12 (2:2:1) medium. Collagen type-I was found to be the dominant form in primary normal human dermal fibroblast (pNHDF) co-cultures, whereas collagen type-III was more abundant in primary keloid-derived human dermal fibroblast (pKHDF) co-cultures. Collagen type-V was present as a minor component in the skin. TGF-β1, SMAD2 and SMAD4 were expressed more in the pKHDF than the pNHDF co-cultures. Co-cultures with normal keratinocytes suppressed collagen type-III, SMAD2, SMAD4 and TGF-β1 expressions and CPSRT-NC-bicarbonate enhanced this effect. In conclusion, the CPSRT-NC-bicarbonate in association with normal-derived keratinocytes demonstrated an ability to reduce TGF-β1, SMAD2 and SMAD4 expressions in keloid-derived fibroblast cultures, which may be useful in keloid intervention.