Do Acne Treatments Affect Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Serum Levels? A Clinical and Laboratory Study On Patients With Acne Vulgaris.

Acne is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting sebaceous gland follicles. Lately acne has considered an IGF-1 mediated disease. Recent research demonstrated that IGF-1 levels decrease after three months of isotretinoin. The purpose of our study is evaluating the influence of acne treatments on IGF-1 serum levels. 46 subjects with acne vulgaris aged 14-30 years were subdivided into 3 groups according to their severity of acne and treated following the European Dermatology forum guidelines. IGF-1 was measured in patients before and after the treatment and then compared to the IGF-1 of a healthy population of the same age. IGF-1 resulted higher in patients than in controls but there was not a statistically significant variation after treatment. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study evaluating the influence of topical and systemic acne treatment on IGF-1 serum levels. In contrast with the literature our results suggest that common therapies for acne are not able to significantly modify IGF-1serum levels. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.