Elastography findings in acne scar patients who were treated with microneedling.

BACKGROUND: Acne scar (AS) is a frequent sequela in patients with acne. In addition to advanced treatment methods, microneedling (MN) is still used as an effective option in the treatment of AS. However, similar to most diseases in dermatology, there is no objective tool to determine the severity of AS and to evaluate the treatment outcome. OBJECTIVES: In the current study, we aimed to evaluate skin elasticity in AS patients who have undergone MN therapy. Furthermore, other purposes were to determine the relationships between the history of isotretinoin use, demographic data, and changes in skin elasticity. METHODS: In order to evaluate the skin elasticity of 20 patients with AS, shear wave elastography (SWE) was performed before and after MN treatment. The physician's clinical assessment was evaluated with quantitative AS severity scale. In order to show that SWE is a consistent method, three repeated measurements were performed on 24 healthy participants. RESULTS: A significant increase was found between the shear-wave velocity (SWV) values that were measured baseline and after treatment in the patient group (P = 0.033). In the control group, there was no significant difference between the three repeated measurements (P > 0.05). A statistically significant decrease was also detected in the AS severity scores (P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: In AS patients who underwent MN treatment, a significant increase was found in skin elasticity compared to the baseline. We argued that SWE is a method that can be useful to evaluate skin elasticity before and after similar cosmetic procedures and dermatological diseases.

Magnesium sulfate protects fetal skin from intrauterine ischemia reperfusion injury.

Intrauterine ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in fetus occurs with multifactorial pathogenesis and results with multiorgan injury including skin. Magnesium has widespread use in obstetric practice. Inn addition to magnesium's tocolytic and neuroprotective properties, it also has free radical reducing effects. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate whether magnesium sulfate could have protective effect on fetal rat skin in intrauterine ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Fetal skin ischemia was induced by clamping the utero-ovarian arteries bilaterally for 30 min, and reperfusion was achieved by removing the clamps for 60 min in 19-day pregnant rats. Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO(4)) was given to pregnant rats 20 min before I/R injury at the dose of 600 mg/kg in magnesium treatment group. No ischemia reperfusion was applied to control and sham-operated groups. Lipid peroxidation from the skin tissues was determined as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was determined for neutrophil activation. The results showed that the levels of TBARS and MPO increased significantly in the fetal rat skin after I/R injury compared to control group. Levels of TBARS and MPO were significantly lower than those of I/R group in Magnesium-treated group. In conclusion, intrauterine ischemia-reperfusion may produce considerable fetal skin injury. Increased TBARS and MPO activity can be inhibited by magnesium treatment. This suggests that magnesium treatment may have protective effect on fetal rat skin in intrauterine I/R injury.