With growing awareness that what we put in and on our bodies affects our health and well-being, little is still known about the impact of textiles on the human skin. Athletic wear often uses silver threading to improve hygiene, but little is known about its effect on the body’s largest organ. In this study, we investigated the impact of such clothing on the skin’s chemistry and microbiome. Samples were collected from different body sites of a dozen volunteers over the course of 12 weeks.

The changes induced by the antibacterial clothing were specific for individuals but more so defined by gender and body size. Unexpectedly, the microbial biomass on the skin increased in most volunteers when wearing silver-threaded T-shirts. Although the most abundant taxa remained unaffected, silver caused an increase in the diversity and richness of low-abundant bacteria and decreased chemical diversity.

View the full article at: https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/msystems.00922-22

Authors	Alexey V Melnik, Chris Callewaert, Kathleen Dorrestein, Rosie Broadhead, Jeremiah J Minich, Madeleine Ernst, Greg Humphrey, Gail Ackermann, Rob Gathercole, Alexander A Aksenov, Rob Knight, Pieter C Dorrestein
Publication date	2023/2/23
Journal	Msystems
Volume	8
Issue	1
Pages	e00922-22
Publisher	American Society for Microbiology

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