Mice may not get acne, but they do have oily skin. This week, new research from Rockefeller University shows how the cells responsible for oil production develop, and uncovers clues about how acne begins.

The research focuses on the skin's sebaceous gland, which is linked to the hair shaft and secretes an oily mixture called sebum.

In new research, published in the August 11 issue of Cell, Elaine Fuchs, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Rockefeller University, settles this argument, showing that at the site where the sebaceous gland adjoins the hair follicle, a unique population of cells exists whose sole job is to make, and maintain, the sebaceous gland. The behaviour of these cells may cause acne.

 

"We were exploring the expression of a transcription factor called Blimp1, which had surfaced in a genetic screen that we had conducted." explains Fuchs, who is the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor and head of the Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at Rockefeller.

"We were surprised to find that Blimp1 was expressed in a small population of cells within the sebaceous gland. We knew these cells were skin keratinocytes but no one had ever described their existence and therefore, we had no clues about their relationship to the gland."

"The data show clearly that these cells are the progenitors for the entire sebaceous gland," says Horsley. "And Blimp1 is somehow controlling how many cells are allowed into the gland. This is the first molecular characterization of these cells."

This finding may help scientists understand sebaceous gland disorders ranging from acne to sebaceous cell cancers. 

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