Abstract
There has been an increasing focus on the extent to which oxidative stress is involved in the pathophysiology of acne. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of silymarin, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and selenium in the treatment of acne vulgaris. A randomized prospective clinical trial was carried out on 56 patients of both sexes with age range of 14-35 years who attend to outpatient clinic in Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital, Karbalaa, Iraq over a period from December 2011 to May 2012, all patients examined clinically by dermatologist and classified according to disease severity. Serum levels of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and interleukine-8 (IL-8) in the acne patients were measured by using ready-for-use Elisa kits, and compared to that of 28 healthy volunteers. The clinical follow up was done every two weeks in order to assess the changes in the number of inflammatory lesions. Administration of antioxidants silymarin, NAC and selenium (but not placebo) to patients with acne vulgaris significantly reduced serum MDA and increased serum GSH levels after 8 weeks compared to pre-treatment value; also significantly reduced serum IL-8 levels and the number of inflammatory lesions in patients with acne compared to placebo. The results obtained in this study clearly showed the beneficial effect of using silymarin, NAC and selenium to patients with acne vulgaris as indicated by the clinical improvement and biochemical findings, and confirmed the role of new strategy in the targeting of pathophysiological changes accompanied with acne by using antioxidant agents.

Key words: Acne vulgaris; Inflammation; N-acetylcysteine; Oxidative stress; Selenium; Silymarin

Similar Articles

Detoxification of Reactive Aldehydes by Alda-1 Treatment Ameliorates Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis in Mice.
Islam SMT, Won J, Kim J, Qiao F, Singh AK, Khan M, Singh I
Neuroscience. 2021; 458(): 31-42

GSK3-mediated stress signaling inhibits legume-rhizobium symbiosis by phosphorylating GmNSP1 in soybean.
He C, Gao H, Wang H, Guo Y, He M, Peng Y, Wang X
Molecular plant. 2021; 14(3): 488-502

Acquired Resistance to Severe Ethanol Stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Protein Quality Control.
Yoshida M, Kato S, Fukuda S, Izawa S
Applied and environmental microbiology. 2021; 87(6):

Natural Alkaloids and Diabetes Mellitus: A Review.
Ajebli M, Khan H, Eddouks M
Endocrine, metabolic & immune disorders drug targets. 2021; 21(1): 111-130

Exogenous salicylic acid alleviates the accumulation of pesticides and mitigates pesticide-induced oxidative stress in cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.).
Liu T, Li T, Zhang L, Li H, Liu S, Yang S, An Q, Pan C, Zou N
Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. 2021; 208(): 111654

Evaluation of the hepatoprotective effects of curcumin and nanocurcumin against paraquat-induced liver injury in rats: Modulation of oxidative stress and Nrf2 pathway.
Kheiripour N, Plarak A, Heshmati A, Asl SS, Mehri F, Ebadollahi-Natanzi A, Ranjbar A, Hosseini A
Journal of biochemical and molecular toxicology. 2021; (): e22739

Bifunctional mechanisms of autophagy and apoptosis regulations in melanoma from Bacillus subtilis natto fermentation extract.
Chou HY, Liu LH, Chen CY, Lin IF, Ali D, Yueh-Luen Lee A, David Wang HM
Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biolog. 2021; 150(): 112020

Analytical evaluation of serum non-transferrin-bound iron and its relationships with oxidative stress and cardiac load in the general population.
Sugiura T, Dohi Y, Takase H, Fujii S, Seo Y, Ohte N
Medicine. 2021; 100(7): e24722