Acne and heredity

Abstract

The role of heredity and its impact on the clinical severity of acne has been suggested by several studies. In 1960, Hecht [1] was the first to assess the role of heredity for acne. He demonstrated that if one of the parents had presented with acne in his/her youth, the child who resembled him/her most had 80 % probability of developing acne himself/herself. It was later resumed in several clinical studies [2-4] of which some had been performed in twins [5-7]. One study of 95 pairs of twins presenting with acne showed that 98 % of monozygotic twins were affected versus 46 % of dizygotic twins [6]. The two other ones [5, 7] confirmed this high concordance in monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins. In one of them [5] the influence of genetic factors and family history on the occurrence of acne was estimated to be 81 %. A link was shown between family factors and the susceptibility to persistence of acne into adulthood [8-10]. Finally, a recent study performed in 2006 showed that the concept of family acne is associated with an early onset of lesions characterized by greater risk of scarring and more widespread lesions [11]. When a family history can be shown to exist [9] acne is more difficult to treat, with longer treatment periods and greater risk of recurrence.