Nakatsuji Teruaki, Kao Mandy C, Fang Jia-You, Zouboulis Christos C, Zhang Liangfang, Gallo Richard L, Huang Chun-Ming
Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
J Invest Dermatol. 2009 Oct;129(10):2480-8. doi: 10.1038/jid.2009.93. Epub 2009 Apr 23.
The strong bactericidal properties of lauric acid (C12:0), a middle chain-free fatty acid commonly found in natural products, have been shown in a number of studies. However, it has not been demonstrated whether lauric acid can be used for acne treatment as a natural antibiotic against Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes), which promotes follicular inflammation (inflammatory acne). This study evaluated the antimicrobial property of lauric acid against P. acnes both in vitro and in vivo. Incubation of the skin bacteria P. acnes, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) with lauric acid yielded minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values against the bacterial growth over 15 times lower than those of benzoyl peroxide (BPO). The lower MIC values of lauric acid indicate stronger antimicrobial properties than that of BPO. The detected values of half maximal effective concentration (EC(50)) of lauric acid on P. acnes, S. aureus, and S. epidermidis growth indicate that P. acnes is the most sensitive to lauric acid among these bacteria. In addition, lauric acid did not induce cytotoxicity to human sebocytes. Notably, both intradermal injection and epicutaneous application of lauric acid effectively decreased the number of P. acnes colonized with mouse ears, thereby relieving P. acnes-induced ear swelling and granulomatous inflammation. The obtained data highlight the potential of using lauric acid as an alternative treatment for antibiotic therapy of acne vulgaris.
月桂酸（C12:0）是一种常见于天然产物中的中链游离脂肪酸，多项研究已表明其具有强大的杀菌特性。然而，月桂酸是否可作为一种针对痤疮丙酸杆菌（痤疮发病的促滤泡炎症（炎性痤疮）因素）的天然抗生素用于痤疮治疗，尚未得到证实。本研究评估了月桂酸在体外和体内对痤疮丙酸杆菌的抗菌特性。将皮肤细菌痤疮丙酸杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和表皮葡萄球菌与月桂酸一起孵育，得出的最低抑菌浓度（MIC）值显示，月桂酸对细菌生长的抑制作用比过氧化苯甲酰（BPO）低15倍以上。月桂酸较低的MIC值表明其抗菌性能比BPO更强。月桂酸对痤疮丙酸杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和表皮葡萄球菌生长的半数最大效应浓度（EC(50)）检测值表明，在这些细菌中，痤疮丙酸杆菌对月桂酸最为敏感。此外，月桂酸不会对人皮脂腺细胞产生细胞毒性。值得注意的是，皮内注射和表皮涂抹月桂酸均能有效减少小鼠耳部定殖的痤疮丙酸杆菌数量，从而缓解痤疮丙酸杆菌引起的耳部肿胀和肉芽肿性炎症。所获数据凸显了月桂酸作为寻常痤疮抗生素治疗替代疗法的潜力。
