Acne Inflammation Discovery Could Lead to New Treatments

If there is an issue with oily skin, why don't we wash it? A recent study offers an answer.

There are a number of small and largebacterial infections in the Pimples. Cutibacterium acnes, which live innocuously on skin cells but can grow out of control when the skin's oily sebum increases, is one of the most common involvedbacteria. Richard Gallo of the University of California, San Diego, who led the new study, says that the fight between our immune system and the fast-growingbacteria is what we think of as "acne." Gallo says that most people don't care if you're dirty or not. It's a problem with the way your body's immune system deals with thebacteria that are supposed to be there.

The end of a soccer game is a time when the immune system andbacteria are at their worst. The turf-mangling immune system player is identified in the new study. Gallo and his colleagues have shown in Science Translational Medicine that fibroblasts are involved in the facial face-off. The scientists found that C. acnes causes fibroblasts to turn into fat cells that produce an antimicrobial substance and cause inflammation. The researchers found that retinoids work by blocking fibroblasts' transformation and release of irritating proteins.

Jonette Keri is a clinical dermatologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who was not involved in the research. She says that pursuing a more targeted way to stop the fibroblasts' transformation would be a great way to treat retinoids.