Development and metabolic profiling of a postbiotic complex exhibiting antibacterial activity against skin microorganisms and anti-inflammatory effect on human keratinocytes.

Beyond probiotics, the interest in the application of postbiotics to various fields has been growing. We aimed to develop a novel postbiotic complex (PC) with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Through antibacterial activity testing against Staphylococcus aureus or Cutibacterium acnes, a PC [a mixture of cell-free supernatants (postbiotics) from probiotic Lactobacillus helveticus (HY7801) and Lactococcus lactis (HY449)] was developed. Anti-inflammatory activity of the PC was investigated using HaCaT keratinocytes treated with S. aureus or C. acnes. PC significantly decreased IL-8 levels and increased hyaluronic acid levels in HaCaT cells cultured with S. aureus or C. acnes. GC-MS based metabolic profiling suggested 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid, hypoxanthine, succinic acid, ornithine, and γ-aminobutyric acid as potential contributing metabolites for the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects of PC. The PC developed in this study could be utilized in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products as an alternative or complementary resources of probiotics. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-022-01123-x. © The Korean Society of Food Science and Technology 2022.