Skin is the body’s largest organ and is acting as a physical and immunological barrier. It also provides shelter for the resident commensal microbiota and prevents the pathogenic microorganisms to overgrow. An imbalance in skin microbiota encourages the development of skin diseases. Acne and atopic dermatitis are chronic skin diseases strongly connected to changes in the composition of skin bacteria. Typical for acne is an excessive colonisation of skin and follicles with Propionibacterium acnes, and for atopic dermatitis an excessive colonisation of skin with Staphylococcus aureus. Along with the pathogenic microorganisms, beneficial microorganisms called probiotics are present in the microbiota. They are live microorganisms that have a variety of beneficial effects on the skin. Probiotic strains vary in terms of their probiotic activity and safety. Integrating probiotics into cosmetic products and dermatics is a new and fast developing area. In these products, the term probiotic includes not only the live probiotic cells but also their metabolites, lysates, and dead bacteria. In this master thesis, we collected data on types of probiotics, in vitro and ex vivo studies of probiotic activity mechanisms that could have a beneficial influence in establishing a normal skin microbiota and ease the consequences of its imbalance. Probiotic ingredients can act antimicrobial and immunomodulatory, strengthen the skin barrier, or prevent pathogens from attaching. From scientific articles and patents, we gathered data on various ways of formulating probiotic ingredients into delivery systems, collected the data on clinical trials of the products designed to mitigate acne and atopic dermatitis, and commented the regulatory limitations on introducing the products in the market based on regulations. We determined that the results of preclinical studies are complemented by the discoveries from the clinical studies and confirm the effectiveness of probiotic ingredients. All dermal probiotic products designed to mitigate acne and atopic dermatitis that are currently available on the EU market comply with cosmetics regulation. In their formulation, these either include well-known probiotic strains, or ingredients sourced out of them. Currently, clinical trials of selected probiotics for active substances are in progress, as well as procedures of topically transplanting individual beneficial commensal bacterial strains. Dermal probiotic products could support the treatment of acne and atopic dermatitis with conventional drugs to help strengthen skin barrier or act antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory, which could diminish the local or systemic use of antibiotics and/or glucocorticoids.
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