{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,23]],"date-time":"2025-10-23T11:21:43Z","timestamp":1761218503455,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]],"date-time":"2022-07-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1658188800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal)","award":["UIDB\/04567\/2020","UIDP\/04567\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/04567\/2020","UIDP\/04567\/2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Kefir, a symbiotic consortium of diverse bacteria and yeasts, is one of the most popular probiotic foods on the market. Its consumption has been referred to as beneficial in human skin health, namely in the reinforcement of skin\u2019s barrier function. This benefit likely results from the productive activity of lactic acid bacteria during kefir fermentation. Lactic acid is naturally present in the skin, and actively contributes to epidermal water dynamics and \u201cbarrier.\u201d Few studies have been conducted regarding the impact of probiotic consumption in human epidermal water homeostasis. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the impact of the regular consumption of kefir on the skin water dynamics in a group of participants with healthy skin. Participants (n = 27) were healthy female volunteers from whom twelve consumed 100 mL of kefir every day for eight weeks as part of their diet. The remaining (untreated) participants served as the control group. Epidermal water balance was assessed by measuring transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and stratum corneum (SC) hydration on three different occasions\u2014at baseline (T0), after four weeks (T4) and after eight weeks (T8) of interventive kefir consumption. Our study revealed a significant reduction in TEWL (p = 0.043) in the kefir group after eight weeks of regular consumption. In the same period, no differences were found for TEWL in the control group (p = 0.997). Regarding hydration, skin dryness was progressive in the control group, with a significant reduction in SC hydration (p = 0.002) at T8 in comparison to T0. In the kefir group, SC hydration was preserved between T0 and T8 (p = 0.997), which we believe to be related to epidermal \u201cbarrier\u201d reinforcement. Our study seems to confirm that the regular consumption of kefir does improve cutaneous water balance even in healthy skin.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life12071075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]],"date-time":"2022-07-19T05:37:53Z","timestamp":1658209073000},"page":"1075","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["The Impact of Kefir on Epidermal Water Homeostasis in Healthy Human Skin"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3320-6748","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Em\u00edlia","family":"Alves","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CBIOS\u2014Universidade Lus\u00f3fona\u2019s Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alcal\u00e1, Carretera Madrid-Barcelona, Km 33.100, 28805 Alcal\u00e1 de Henares, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6130-9453","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jo\u00e3o","family":"Greg\u00f3rio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CBIOS\u2014Universidade Lus\u00f3fona\u2019s Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7992-8343","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Patr\u00edcia","family":"Rijo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CBIOS\u2014Universidade Lus\u00f3fona\u2019s Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o do Medicamento (iMed.ULisboa), Faculdade de Farm\u00e1cia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6429-6213","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catarina","family":"Rosado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CBIOS\u2014Universidade Lus\u00f3fona\u2019s Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0198-7671","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lu\u00eds Monteiro","family":"Rodrigues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CBIOS\u2014Universidade Lus\u00f3fona\u2019s Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1007\/s11882-008-0048-0","article-title":"Skin barrier function","volume":"8","author":"Elias","year":"2008","journal-title":"Curr. 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