## 3 Results
### Microbiome Analysis
#### 3.3.1 Rarefaction Curve Analysis
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Parameters** & **Coefficients** & **Confidence Interval (95\%)** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline Treatment compared to placebo & \(-1.251\) & \(-2.189\) to \(-0.313\) & \(0.010\) \\ Gender (Female compared to male) & \(-0.429\) & \(-1.420\) to \(0.562\) & \(0.388\) \\ Age & \(-0.003\) & \(-0.050\) to \(0.045\) & \(0.909\) \\ BMI & \(0.053\) & \(-0.114\) to \(0.219\) & \(0.528\) \\ TEWL in placebo & \(0.477\) & \(0.243\) to \(0.711\) & \(<\)\(0.0001\) \\ Constant & \(2.612\) & \(-1.560\) to \(6.784\) & \(0.214\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Linear regression analysis of changes in the transepidermal water loss (TEWL) after 4 weeks of treatment. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Parameters** & **Coefficients** & **Confidence Interval (95\%)** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline Treatment compared to placebo & \(4.615\) & \(-0.198\) to \(9.032\) & \(0.041\) \\ Gender (Female compared to male) & \(4.434\) & \(-0.150\) to \(9.019\) & \(0.058\) \\ Age & \(-0.037\) & \(-0.261\) to \(0.186\) & \(0.737\) \\ BMI & \(0.258\) & \(-0.530\) to \(1.047\) & \(0.513\) \\ SCM in placebo & \(0.467\) & \(0.263\) to \(0.671\) & \(<\)\(0.0001\) \\ Constant & \(10.030\) & \(-11.010\) to \(31.070\) & \(0.342\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: Linear regression analysis of changes in the stratum corneum moisture (SCM) after 4 weeks of treatment. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Parameters** & **Coefficients** & **Confidence Interval (95\%)** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline Treatment compared to placebo & \(13.190\) & \(7.931\) to \(18.449\) & \(<\)\(0.0001\) \\ Gender (Female compared to male) & \(1.597\) & \(-3.861\) to \(7.055\) & \(0.558\) \\ Age & \(-0.051\) & \(-0.317\) to \(0.215\) & \(0.701\) \\ BMI & \(-0.234\) & \(-1.172\) to \(0.705\) & \(0.619\) \\ SCM in placebo & \(0.951\) & \(0.709\) to \(1.193\) & \(<\)\(0.0001\) \\ Constant & \(8.158\) & \(-16.890\) to \(33.207\) & \(0.515\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Linear regression analysis of changes in the stratum corneum moisture (SCM) after 4 h of treatment. The PCoA plot for the treatment groups showed significant differences in the microbial abundances and diversity between Tpre and Tpost samples. PCoA plot axis 1, axis 2, and axis 3 explained the variances in microbial abundances in the samples as 25.42%, 19.10%, and 13.10%. SK-2 Tpre sample was scattered near the Tpost samples of SK-2 and SK-8, which indicated the subsided microbial similarity between them. Overall, pre- and post-treatment samples were scattered, indicating the significant microbial differences between them (Figure 1F). Figure 1: Refraction analysis for the pre-and post-samples of the control and treatment groups. The rarefaction curves of the phylogenetic diversity were computed and displayed for the control (**A**) and treatment (**B**) samples. Shannon H-index alpha diversity of the control (**C**) and treatment (**D**) samples. Comparison of similarity and dissimilarity for the control (**E**) and treatment (**F**) samples using PCoA represent unweighted unifrac distances.