Background: Acne vulgaris is a common inflammatory skin disease with a multifactorial pathogenesis. Although the pathophysiology of acne has been linked to free radical-mediated responses, it is still unknown how these reactions trigger the disease’s progression.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the status and role of oxidative stress in patients with acne vulgaris, and to find a potential correlation with varying clinical severities.
Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 200 subjects (50 in each grade of acne vulgaris: Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4) and 50 controls aged 18 to 45 years, between 01 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 at SGT University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Gurugram, India. The analysis included superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. A Student’s t-test and Pearson’s correlation were applied, and a p-value of < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.
Results: The present study included 50 healthy controls: 29 women and 21 men, with a mean age of 25.80 ± 5.45 years, while the mean age of the cases was 26.24 ± 6.56 years, with 121 women and 79 men. Acne patients had considerably higher serum MDA levels than healthy controls (p < 0.001). Malondialdehyde was highest in Grade 4 patients (10.61 nmol/mL ± 1.75 nmol/mL), while lowest MDA levels were observed in Grade 1 acne (5.83 nmol/mL ± 0.60 nmol/mL). Superoxide dismutase, CAT and GSH activities were significantly lower in acne patients in comparison to healthy controls (p < 0.001). The levels of SOD, CAT and GSH decreased as the severity of disease increased, indicative of antioxidant defence system damage.
Conclusion: These findings provide credence to the link between acne and oxidative stress, which suggests that oxidative stress markers could be helpful in assessing the course of acne, and in outlining the patho-physiological support of the condition.
What this study adds: The study suggests that levels of SOD, CAT, GSH and MDA differ significantly in patients with acne vulgaris, adding region-specific evidence from the Indian population, addressing a gap in the literature on oxidative stress in dermatological conditions in this demographic.

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African Journal of Laboratory Medicine    |    ISSN: 2225-2002 (PRINT)    |    ISSN: 2225-2010 (ONLINE)