Cellular immunity in acne vulgaris during transfer factor treatment.

The effect of treatment with human dialyzable transfer factor was investigated on acne vulgaris patients in a double-blind study. About 1/3 of the patients improved clinically during the study period but there was no correlation between clinical improvement and transfer factor treatment. Prior to treatment parameters of cell-mediated immunity were significantly altered in the patients. These alterations normalized during the study in all patients irrespective of transfer factor treatment, possibly due to the immunostimulatory effect of repeated skin testing. The present results support previous findings that acne patients have slightly altered cell-mediated immunity, but the results further suggest that abnormalities are not significant in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris.