QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS OF STUDYING THE EFFECT OF LIPIDS ON BACTERIA GROWN ON THE SURFACE OF SOLID CULTURE MEDIA

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Abstract
Various views are held about the antibacterial mechanisms operating on the skin surface (for reviews see Burtenshaw, 1945; Naylor and Rook, 1968). Substances resembling long-chain fatty acids extracted from normal skin by Burtenshaw (1945) had a marked bactericidal action on Streptococcus pyogenes. Ricketts, Squire and Topley (1951) suggested that a chemical mechanism was largely responsible for the destruction of Str. pyogenes on the skin, whereas drying is responsible for the destruction of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; both factors appeared to contribute to the elimination of Staphylococcus aureus. They concluded that unsaturated fatty acids, particularly oleic acid, are the active chemical agents. These fatty acids may be produced on the skin surface as a result of the splitting of esters in the sebum by the commensal flora (Scheimann et al., 1960; Davidson, 1965; Naylor, 1970).