Superficial skin responses in humans to local commensals

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Sampling superficial skin in humans for identifying individual host / pathogen responses to commensal staphylococci

• IRAS ID

  206799

• Contact name

  TS Wilkinson

• Contact email

  t.s.wilkinson@swansea.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Swansea University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 11 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a major problem in hospitals worldwide. The annual number of infections in the EU27 has been estimated to be over 4 million resulting directly in 37,000 deaths and indirectly in a further 110,000 deaths. Skin commensals (e.g Staphylococcus epidermidis) have emerged as important pathogens responsible for HAI and medical device related infections. This study is concerned with how skin bacteria influence the local immune system of the skin. It will investigate:
  the types and amount of bacteria that live on and within the uppermost layers of your skin.
  how these bacterial populations are different in different areas of the body
  how these bacterial populations change with time
  inflammatory markers in your skin
  how bacteria return to your skin following skin surface sterilisation

  To do this we will sample bacteria and human cells within the outermost layers of human skin. Bacteria will be isolated using an agar (firm jelly) plate pressed against the skin. The agar plate can then be incubated at 37C and individual bacterial colonies will grow. This material can then be used to study a persons individual bacterial flora.

  Human skin cells will be isolated using a well described technique in investigative dermatology called skin stripping / tape harvesting where 'sticky tape' is placed on the skin and removed. The 'fingerprint' that is removed is a source of human cells, DNA, RNA and protein and will be stored for future analysis of the persons local immune system in the skin.

  Studying the effect that local bacteria have on the immune response will allow us to understand how a person's flora affects the immune system and whether this influences susceptibility to infections both in the community but especially in the hospital environment.

• REC name

  London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/LO/1095

• Date of REC Opinion

  3 Jun 2016

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion