In South Korea, researchers at Chung-Ang University collected microbial skin samples from over 230 healthy people living in megacities and smaller cities in China and found that the skin microbiomes of the megacity-dwelling people differed from the smaller cities in that they were more fragile. This could increase their rate of skin diseases.
The analysis of the skin microbiomes found that the megacity samples had lower network density than non-megacity samples. “Additionally, the analysis indicated that non-megacity samples had more complex microbial network structures,” according to GenomeWeb. “This suggested to the researchers that the megacity microbiomes are more fragile, and that this fragility could contribute to skin disease in those regions.”