A Study Says Curbing Sebum May Help Lessen Acne

Acne is the cause of the misery of a lot of teens as well as several adults. This leads to many of them seeking for acne treatment and other skincare products and routines in the hopes of getting rid of and prevent acne.

A team of researchers discloses that they may have arrived at a new method to alleviating the said condition. The solution lies in skin oil, known as sebum, which is naturally produced. This research was conducted by a team headed by William Esler, a researcher at Pfizer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Curbing Sebum May Help Lessen Acne

Sebum is essential to the health of the skin since it aids to normalize temperature as well as keep microbes at bay, stated the team. However, the overproduction of sebum has as well long been believed to be one cause of acne. Excessive sebum could get blocked in glands, causing it to puff up and produce a bump underneath the skin. This was explained by Dr. Raman Madan, the dermatologist at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital. According to Dr. Madan, who wasn’t part of the new research, distinguishing a goal to lessen the production of sebum would be an innovative method to acne treatment.

The study encompassed a microscopic analysis of the skin of 22 hale and hearty participants who volunteered for the research. The team learned that sebum production of the skin depends on a certain molecular system called the de novo lipogenesis or DNL pathway.

The Findings

Majority of the sebum was discovered to be created by sebocytes, which produced the oil based on the DNL pathway’s ebb and flow. However, nine participants with acne displayed one main differentiation. The outcomes showed that when matched up to individuals having normal skin, they carry a 20% higher level of production of sebum as well as a related increase in fluxes of the DNL pathway.

Furthermore, as per the report printed in the May 15 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the team of Esler created a compound that aimed at an enzyme that has to do with the pathway. In volunteers who are healthy, the use of the treatment lessened the production of sebum by almost half.

Sure enough, these tests are early and it continues to be observed if such a compound may limit sebum (and acne) in a bigger, more thorough test.

In the interim, Dr. Madan mentioned that the given methodology “has potential.” However, he warned that this approach might be an acne treatment, not an acne cure since the cause of acne is beyond just the production of sebum. Moreover, he also said that it has the potential to be an add-on to existing acne treatments.

Dr. Michele Green also concurred that the discovery might offer possibilities to patients with acne vulgaris. Dr. Green is a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City.

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