Swimming and the human microbiome at the intersection of sports, clinical, and environmental sciences: A scoping review of the literature

Luca Puce; Jarrad Hampton-Marcell; Khaled Trabelsi; Achraf Ammar; Hamdi Chtourou; Ayoub Boulares; Lucio Marinelli; Laura Mori; Filippo Cotellessa; Antonio Currà; Carlo Trompetto; Nicola Luigi Bragazzi

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.984867

Swimming and the human microbiome at the intersection of sports, clinical, and environmental sciences: A scoping review of the literature

Front Microbiol. 2022 Aug 3:13:984867. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.984867. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Luca Puce¹, Jarrad Hampton-Marcell^{2

3}, Khaled Trabelsi^{4

5}, Achraf Ammar^{6

7

8}, Hamdi Chtourou^{4

9}, Ayoub Boulares¹⁰, Lucio Marinelli^{1

11}, Laura Mori^{1

11}, Filippo Cotellessa^{1

11}, Antonio Currà¹², Carlo Trompetto^{1

11}, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi¹³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
² Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
³ Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, United States.
⁴ Institut Supérieur du Sport et de l'Éducation Physique de Sfax, Université de Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁵ Research Laboratory: Education, Motricité, Sport et Santé, EM2S, Sfax University, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁶ Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
⁷ Institute of Sport Science, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
⁸ Interdisciplinary Laboratory in Neurosciences, Physiology and Psychology: Physical Activity, Health and Learning (LINP2), Université Paris Lumières, Paris Nanterre University, Nanterre, France.
⁹ Activité Physique, Sport et Santé, UR18JS01, Observatoire National du Sport, Tunis, Tunisia.
¹⁰ Higher Institute of Sports and Physical Education of Ksar-Said, University of Manouba, Tunis, Tunisia.
¹¹ Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy.
¹² Department of Medical-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, A. Fiorini Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Latina, Italy.
¹³ Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Abstract

The human microbiota is comprised of more than 10-100 trillion microbial taxa and symbiotic cells. Two major human sites that are host to microbial communities are the gut and the skin. Physical exercise has favorable effects on the structure of human microbiota and metabolite production in sedentary subjects. Recently, the concept of "athletic microbiome" has been introduced. To the best of our knowledge, there exists no review specifically addressing the potential role of microbiomics for swimmers, since each sports discipline requires a specific set of techniques, training protocols, and interactions with the athletic infrastructure/facility. Therefore, to fill in this gap, the present scoping review was undertaken. Four studies were included, three focusing on the gut microbiome, and one addressing the skin microbiome. It was found that several exercise-related variables, such as training volume/intensity, impact the athlete's microbiome, and specifically the non-core/peripheral microbiome, in terms of its architecture/composition, richness, and diversity. Swimming-related power-/sprint- and endurance-oriented activities, acute bouts and chronic exercise, anaerobic/aerobic energy systems have a differential impact on the athlete's microbiome. Therefore, their microbiome can be utilized for different purposes, including talent identification, monitoring the effects of training methodologies, and devising ad hoc conditioning protocols, including dietary supplementation. Microbiomics can be exploited also for clinical purposes, assessing the effects of exposure to swimming pools and developing potential pharmacological strategies to counteract the insurgence of skin infections/inflammation, including acne. In conclusion, microbiomics appears to be a promising tool, even though current research is still limited, warranting, as such, further studies.

Keywords: clinical microbiomics; microbiome; scoping review; sports microbiomics; swimming.

Publication types

Review