Clinical And Laboratory Investigation On The Effect Of Colquhounia Root Tablet In The Treatment Of Acne

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy of Colquhounia root tablet in the treatment of acne and to explore its possible therapeutic mechanismMethods: 144 patients (grade Ⅱ :77 cases;Grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ :67 cases) were included in the study. They were randomly divided into two groups( treatment and control). Oral Colquhounia root tablet (0.54g, Tid) plus daily external use of 2% chloramphenicol tincture were given in the treatment group. Only daily external use of 2% chloramphenicol tincture was given in the control group. Overall clinical examinations of severity of acne symptoms were performed at baseline after 4 week's treatment. Serum was collected from patients (grade II and above) before and after treatment to determine the amount of cytokines(IL-1α, IL-8, TNF-α ) by ELISA.Results: There was no differaence statistically in effective rate between the treatment group (97.50%) and the control group (81.08%) in Grade Ⅱ patients (P>0.005, x~2 test). The effective rate of Grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ patients (94.28%) in treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (43.75%) (P<0.05, x~2 test). The serum levels of DL-1α , IL-8 and TNF- α in Grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ patients before treatment were significantly higher than that of healthy control (EL-1 α : 183.73/23.84, IL-8:75.02/33.12, TNF- α :79.97/40.65) (P<0.05, T test), which were decreased significantly after treatment(IL-1 α :28.60/185.21, IL-8:42.23/75.79, TNF- α : 49.61/80.34) (P<0.001, T test);While, in the control group, only IL-8 was statistically decreased (65.65/74.41) (P<0.05, T test) after treatment. The levels of cytokines were much lower in effective patients(33 cases) than that of non-effective ones( 2 cases)after treatment (IL-1 α :28.73/170.98, IL-8: 41.98/71.93, TNF-α :50.31/76.47).Conclusion: The efficiency of Colquhounia root tablet was optimal in the treatment of severe acne. The disorder of immuno-function may initiate or involved in the pathologic process of acne based on the founding that the serum levels of cytokines were significantly higher in the patients than that in the healthy control. This investigation also suggested that immuno-regulation should be the possible mechanism of Colquhounia root tablet in the acne treatment from the evidences that the levels of cytokines were decreased significantly after treatment and further, there were good agreement between the clinical efficiency and the decrease of cytokines.