Inflammation in acne scarring: a comparison of the responses in lesions from patients prone and not prone to scar

Summary Background Many patients with inflammatory acne suffer from significant scarring, which is disfiguring and difficult to treat. A cell‐mediated immune response is considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of acne, although the extent of this response has been found to differ among patients. Objective To assess whether there were differences in the cell‐mediated immune responses at different time points in inflamed lesion development and resolution in patients who were prone (S patients) and those with the same degree of inflamed acne who were not prone (NS patients) to develop scarring. Methods Cellular and vascular markers were investigated using standard immunohistochemical techniques on biopsies of inflamed lesions of known duration, i.e.