Sebum: analysis by infrared spectroscopy. II. The suppression of fatty acids by systemically administered antibiotics

Various tetracyclines and erythromycins have been used rather empirically for the systemic treatment of acne vulgaris for more than a decade. It has been impossible to accurately evaluate clinically the numerous derivatives and to compare their effectiveness with other antibiotics such as clindamycin. As a substitute for this approach, this present study ranks these antibiotics, when given orally, as to their effectivensss in suppressing the fatty acids in sebum in normal volunteers. As a group, the tetracyclines were more effective than the erythromycins in decreasing the fatty acids, but clindamycin was significantly more potent than either.