Scientists Find Teenage Acne May be a Natural, Transient Inflammatory State

A new hypothesis as to the root cause of acne in teenagers could be the breakthrough needed to treat the condition.

Acne is commonly known to be a skin condition that occurs when your hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells. It often causes whiteheads, blackheads or pimples, and usually appears on the face, forehead, chest, upper back and shoulders. Acne is most common among teenagers, though it affects people of all ages.

In a new article published Thursday in the journal Trends in Immunology, a team of researchers from University of Debrecen in Hungary have argued that acne could be natural, transient, inflammatory state that occurs when maturing skin is exposed to new microbes.

This concept might explain why unlike other skin concerns, acne is characterized by strong regional and age specificity, prevalent occurrence, and resolution.

Based on immunological and dermatological data, they hypothesize that the sudden changes in the composition of the microbiota composition within sebaceous-gland-rich skin during adolescence, accompanied by increased sebum production, may result in an inflammatory response that replaces the previous homeostatic host-microbiota crosstalk, thus leading to acne manifestation.

The researches have therefore argues that treatments to acne should focus on promoting mechanisms that restore homeostasis between facial skin and its microbial and chemical milieu. "We are convinced that this research will be highly instrumental for the development of new and innovative treatments for acne," Szegedi says. "Moreover, the mechanisms that initiate, amplify, resolve, or perpetuate acne might have common pathways with diseases that develop in other organ systems, and the knowledge gained on a broader scale on this front may help to better understand a variety of pathological conditions."