Are antibiotics harmful to human skin cells?

wasteofo2

Just curious if antibiotics you might put on a band-aid over a wound that risks infection could kill/harm the skin cells around it.

iansmith

It will depend on the concentration and type of antibitiotic use. It is only consider an antibiotic if the concentration used does not harm the recipient. Then it becomes a toxin.

If the concentration used is below the toxic level then no harm should be done to your cells.

wasteofo2

Alright, thanks, it was just some neosporin, so I guess my skin cells won't go cancerous.

Moonbear

The skin cells would have a greater risk of dying from the inflammatory response to infection than from an over-the-counter topical antibiotic.

And the top layer of skin is already dead cells. Inside the cut is the place where live cells would be exposed to the antibiotic.

Monique

The antibiotic belongs to the aminoglycosides class, that binds to the 30S subunit of bacterial ribosomes and block the attachment of the 50S subunit to the initiation complex.

Although the eukaryotic ribosomes in the cytosol are relatively unaffected by these drugs, ribosomes in the mitochondria are sensitive to their effects (remember that mitochondria have a prokaryotic evolutionary history).

So the dose used will determine the effect.

aychamo

So the antibiotic is bacteria-static?

Monique

Bacteriostatic? You'd think so (as with tetracyclin or chloramphenicol which also inhibit protein synthesis), but no, it is bactericidal :)

Apparently it can inhibit mRNA translation to protein, with the little translation occuring it causes misreading and thus nonsense peptides, but apparently there is also an effect on the membrane which becomes leaky that would explain the bactericidal nature of the antibiotic.

wasteofo2

Gawd Dayum girl! Thanks for that explantion, I feel so filled with knowledge now!

adrenaline

neosporin if applied for longer than a week can induce neosporin dermatitis , a form of contact dermatitis and can actually excacerbate redness and prevent good tissue healing. It is notorious for it.