Scientists at King’s College London have found that people who have previously suffered from acne are likely to have longer telomeres (the protective repeated nucleotides found at the end of chromosomes) in their white blood cells, meaning their cells could be better protected against ageing.
The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology measured the length of white blood cell telomeres in 1,205 twins from the TwinsUK cohort. A quarter of the twins reported having experienced acne in their lifetime. Statistical analyses which adjusted for age, relatedness, weight and height showed that telomere length in acne sufferers was significantly longer, meaning that white blood cells were more protected from the usual deterioration with age. One of the genes involved in telomere length was also associated with acne in a replication sample from the UK Acne Genetic study, also lead by King’s scientists. Dermatologists have long noted that the skin of acne sufferers appears to age more slowly than the skin of those with no history of acne. Signs of ageing such as wrinkles and skin thinning often appear much later in people who have experienced acne in their lifetime. It has been suggested that this is due to increased oil production but there are likely to be other factors involved.
The researchers also examined gene expression in pre–existing skin biopsies from the same twins to identify possible gene pathways linked to acne. One gene pathway (the p53 pathway), which regulates programmed cell death, was found to be less expressed in acne sufferers’ skin. This requires further investigation to identify other genes involved in cell ageing and how they differ in acne sufferers.