Axillary Microbiota Compositions from Men and Women in a Tertiary Institution-South East Nigeria: Effects of Deodorants/Antiperspirants on Bacterial Communities

Abstract

14The axillary skin microbiota compositions of African populations that live in warm climate is not 15 well studied with modern next-generation sequencing methods. To assess the microbiota 16 compositions of the axillary region of healthy male and female students, we used 16S rRNA 17 metagenomics method and clustered the microbial communities between those students that 18 reported regular use of deodorants/antiperspirants and those that do not. Axillary skin swab was 19 self-collected by 38 male and 35 females following uBiome sample collection instructions. 20 Amplification of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA genes was performed and sequencing done in a 21 pair-end set-up on the Illumina NextSeq 500 platform rendering 2 x 150 base pair. Microbial 22taxonomy to species level was generated using the Illumina Greengenes database. 26 phyla were 23 identified in males with Actinobacteria as the most abundant (60%), followed by Firmicutes 24 2 (31.53%), Proteobacteria (5.03%), Bacteroidetes (2.86%) and others. Similarly, 25 phyla were 25 identified in females and Actinobacteria was the most abundant (59.28%), followed by Firmicutes 26 (34.28%), Proteobacteria (5.91%), Bacteroidetes (0.45%) and others. A total of 747 genera were 27 identified, out of which 556 (74.4%) were common to both males and females and 163 (21.8%) 28 were exclusive to males while 28 (3.8%) were exclusive to females. Corynebacterium (53.89% vs 29 50.17%) was the most relative abundant genera in both male and female subjects, followed by 30 Staphylococcus (19.66% vs 20.90%), Anaerococcus (4.91% vs 7.51%), Propionibacterium 31 (1.21% vs 1.84%). There was a significant difference (P=0.0075) between those males that 32 reported regular use of antiperspirant/deodorants and those that reported non-use of 33 antiperspirants/deodorants in the relative abundance of Corynebacterium (68.06% vs 42.40%). 34Higher proportion of Corynebacterium was observed in male subjects than females, while more 35 relative abundance of Staphylococcus was found in females than males. This study detected 36 Lactobacilli in the axilla of over 82% of female and over 81% of male subjects, though in low 37 relative abundance which suggests that Lactobacillus taxa might be considered as part of the 38 normal axillary bacterial community. The study also revealed that the relative abundance of 39 Corynebacterium (68.06% vs 42.40%) was higher in those that reported regular use of 40 deodorants/antiperspirants. 41 42

Topical cream containing live lactobacilli decreases malodor‐producing bacteria and downregulates genes encoding PLP‐dependent enzymes on the axillary skin microbiome of healthy adult Nigerians

“…Body malodor is the most common reason humans generally use deodorants or antiperspirants in order to obtain an appealing body odor or to mask and reduce sweat from the apocrine glands of the skin. In our previous study, 7 we observed that the relative abundance of Corynebacterium (68.06% vs 42.40%) was higher in those that reported regular use of deodorants. Thus, suggesting that the use of deodorants/antiperspirants facilitates the proliferation of Corynebacterium species as high levels of strong body odor were observed by Taylor et al 22 …”

“…Our study group lately demonstrated that Corynebacterium (53.89%) was the most relative abundant genera in males, followed by Staphylococcus (19.66%), Anaerococcus (4.91%) and Cutibacterium (1.21%), while in females Corynebacterium (50.17%) was the most relative abundant genera, followed by Staphylococcus (20.90%), Anaerococcus (7.51%), Acinetobacter (2.79%), Propionibacterium (1.84%), Enhydrobacter (1.68%), Micrococcus (1.64%), Finegoldia (1.47%), and Peptoniphilus (1.08%) 7 …”