NeoGenesis is known for its core stem cell released molecules (S2RM) technology. Another core technology, the use of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics is also key to the efficacy of Neogenesis products. These technologies are part of our therapeutic approach, using system therapeutics for physiological renormalization.

I coined the term “postbiotic” a few years ago in a peer-reviewed PubMed listed paper that details how important prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics are for human health. As a term that I recently coined, and that has rapidly gained wide popularity, I’d like to emphasize the definition of postbiotic. A postbiotic is a molecule that has been produced by a microorganism that provides benefit to the host, i.e. the person to which the molecule has been applied. Postbiotics can be naturally occurring, such as the butyrate that bacteria on our skin are producing. Butyrate is a short chain fatty acid that quells inflammation in the immune system of the skin. Butyrate can also be produced by bacteria in a laboratory, collected and added to a topical product, and then applied to the skin. This too is a postbiotic. We can describe the first instance, where bacteria on the skin are naturally producing butyrate as an endogenous postbiotic, and the second instance, where bacteria produce butyrate in the lab and then it is applied to the skin, as an exogenous postbiotic. Either way, butyrate on the skin is a postbiotic and providing benefits to the skin.

At Neogenesis, we use a form of butyrate in several of our products, including our probiotic product, MB-1. Yes, MB-1 actually has live bacteria and does not use antimicrobial preservatives that would kill the probiotic. So the MB-1 product has both postbiotics and probiotics. In an upcoming post I’ll tell you about another probiotic product that Neogenesis will be launching specially designed for atopic, inflammatory skin conditions. We also use butyrate in our Eye Serum, Booster, and our Barrier Renewal Cream. It’s a great postbiotic, and dermatologist researchers in Germany have found it to be particularly beneficial for modulating the immune system in atopic and inflammatory skin conditions.

Now for prebiotics. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a prebiotic, and has been found to upregulate those short chain fatty acids, such as butyrate in the aforementioned paragraph. In this case, bacteria that are part of the body are fermenting HA and producing butyrate, a postbiotic. Hence, in this case HA is a prebiotic because bacteria on our skin are using it to produce butyrate, a beneficial molecules.

Now, for the kicker. HA can also be an exogenous postbiotic. That is, HA can be produced in the laboratory by bacteria, and then collected, packaged into a product, and applied to the skin. That’s a postbiotic, albeit an exogenous postbiotic because it wasn’t produced by bacteria on our skin. So in this case, HA is an exogenous postbiotic, having been produced by bacteria in the lab, but acts as a prebiotic because it is feeding bacteria on our skin that produce a postbiotic. Normally, HA is not a postbiotic in the skin. Rather, normally, HA is produced by our own cells in the skin. Fibroblasts in our skin normally produce the HA. I’ll have more about the microbiota of the skin in future posts, where we’ll learn about the skin’s microbiota in educating the immune system and in helping to maintain the acid mantle and barrier function.