What Exactly Causes Acne Identified

Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have managed to identify what exactly causes acne, leading to hopes that a new treatment can be developed in future that can put an end to many a sleepless nights among teens. The UCLA researchers conducted a joint study with researchers at Washington University in St Louis and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute and found that all the people carry two strains of acne causing bacteria on their skin and the increased levels of ‘bad’ strains of bacteria leads to acne while ‘good’ strains of bacteria protect the skin.

The researchers though were unable to find out why some people have higher number of ‘bad’ bacteria strains compared to others. The study has been published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

“We learned that not all acne bacteria trigger pimples — one strain may help keep skin healthy. We hope to apply our findings to develop new strategies that stop blemishes before they start, and enable dermatologists to customize treatment to each patient's unique cocktail of skin bacteria”, lead researcher Dr Huiying Li said.



Source-Medindia