Distribution of Bacterial Community Structures on Human Scalp Hair Shaft in Relation to Scalp Sites

September 2023 in “ Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry ”

Kota Watanabe, Azusa Yamada, Shunichi Nakayama, Toshimori Kadokura, Kokki Sakai, Yukihiro Tashiro

scalp hair bacterial community hair shaft bacterial diversity bacterial abundance principal coordinate analysis Weighted UniFrac analysis

Studysummary In this study, researchers observed that bacterial community structures on human scalp hair are unique to individuals and show consistent patterns across different sampling sites on the scalp, without significant variation between these sites.

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This study examined the bacterial community structure on scalp hair shafts from 5 different sites on the scalp of 12 individuals. Significant differences in bacterial diversity and abundance were observed between individuals, but not between different scalp sites. Principal coordinate analysis showed that bacterial communities clustered by individual rather than by scalp site. Weighted UniFrac analysis confirmed that individual differences were statistically significant, while differences between scalp sites were not. These findings suggest that the bacterial community structure on scalp hair shafts is consistent within individuals, regardless of the specific scalp site sampled.

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