Acne spots may look like acne scars but are not scars in the sense that a permanent change has occurred. Even though they are not true scars and disappear in time, they are visible and can cause embarrassment.

Macules or “pseudo-scars” are flat, red or reddish spots that are the final stage of most inflamed acne lesions. After an inflamed acne lesion flattens, a macule may remain to “mark the spot” for up to 6 months. When the macule eventually disappears, no trace of it will remain—unlike a scar.

Acne Redness is showing that the capillaries and blood vessels in the skin have been damaged. Normally they are being healed by the immune system, so this is temporary. Such healing process can be accelerated with Bioskincare

• Unlike the arteries and veins, capillaries are very thin and fragile. The capillaries are actually only one epithelial cell thick. They are so thin that blood cells can only pass through them in single file. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place through the thin capillary wall. The red blood cells inside the capillary release their oxygen which passes through the wall and into the surrounding tissue. The tissue releases its waste products, like carbon dioxide, which passes through the wall and into the red blood cells.

Post-inflammatory pigmentation is discoloration or pigmentation of the skin at the site of a healed or healing inflamed acne lesion.

Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation presents itself as a flat area of discoloration on the skin (macule) ranging from pink to red, purple, brown or black, depending on your skin tone and depth of the discoloration.

Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation can also result from any natural or iatrogenic inflammatory condition, resulting from two mechanism: (1) increased epidermal pigmentation via increased melanocyte activity or (2) dermal melanosis from melanocyte damage and melanin drop out from the epidermis into the dermis.

Melanocytes are melanin-producing cells located in the bottom layer (the stratum basale) of the skin’s epidermis, the middle layer of the eye (the uvea), the inner ear, meninges, bones, and heart.

Melanin is a pigment that is responsible for the color of the skin and it is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms.

In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms. All melanins are derivatives of polyacetylene. The most common melanin – dopamelanin – is a mixed copolymer of polyacetylene, polyaniline, and polypyrrole. Another common form of melanin is pheomelanin, a red-brown polymer of benzothiazine units largely responsible for red hair and freckles. The presence of melanin in the archaea and bacteria kingdoms is an issue of ongoing debate among researchers in the field.

The increased production of melanin in human skin is called melanogenesis. Production of melanin is stimulated by DNA damage induced by UVB-radiation, and it leads to a delayed development of a tan. This melanogenesis-based tan takes more time to develop, but it is long lasting.

The photochemical properties of melanin make it an excellent photoprotectant. It absorbs harmful UV-radiation (ultra violet) and transforms the energy into harmless heat through a process called “ultrafast internal conversion”. This property enables melanin to dissipate more than 99.9% of the absorbed UV radiation as heat. This prevents the indirect DNA damage that is responsible for the formation of malignant melanoma and other skin cancers.

What May Help Hasten Post-inflammatory Hyperpigmentation?

Post-inflammatory pigmentation occurs more frequently in darker-skinned people, but occasionally is seen in people with white skin. Early treatment by a dermatologist may minimize post-inflammatory pigmentation. Some post-inflammatory pigmentation may persist for up to 18 months, especially with excessive sun exposure. Microdermabrasion may hasten the disappearance of post-inflammatory pigmentation.

Causes of Acne Scars

Acne scars occur when spots become inflamed or don’t heal properly. While scarring are prone of hereditary factors or skin color, there are precautions you can take to prevent scars and treatments available to significantly reduce their appearance.

In the simplest terms, scars form at the site of an injury to tissue. They are the visible reminders of injury and tissue repair. In the case of acne, the injury is caused by the body’s inflammatory response to sebum, bacteria and dead cells in the plugged sebaceous follicle. Two types of true scars exist:

(1) Depressed areas such as ice-pick scars, and

(2) Raised thickened tissue such as keloids.

When tissue suffers an injury, the body rushes its “repair kit” to the injury site, imagine, when you have injured the skin activate all the immune and repair system, where elements as white blood cells, inflammatory molecules and regenerative elements that have the task of repairing tissue and fighting infection. However, when their job is done they may leave a somewhat messy repair site in the form of fibrous scar tissue, or eroded tissue. Not always is that way. White blood cells and inflammatory molecules may remain at the site of an active acne lesion for days or even weeks. In people who are susceptible to scarring the result may be an acne scar.

The occurrence and incidence of scarring is still not well understood, however. There is considerable variation in scarring between one person and another, indicating that some people are more prone to scarring than others (ex. hereditary factors or skin color). Scarring frequently results from severe inflammatory nodulocystic acne that occurs deep in the skin. But, scarring also may arise from more superficial inflamed lesions.