The Role of Toll-Like Receptor-2 in Acne Vulgaris of Iraqi Patients

The study was set up to investigate the role of Toll-like receptors-2 (TLR-2) in acne vulgaris. TLR-2 is a member of the innate immune system; it's a group of transmembrane receptors that recognize special microbial structures like pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) lead to the production of cytokine and inflammation. Ninety persons from both genders are included in the study, forty-five of them were patients and the same number was as control. Blood samples were taken from both groups and by using an ELISA kit, TLR-2 was estimated. The findings of the study referred that the adolescent, young adult and female gender was more effective in acne, and the male to female ratio was 1:1.25. Also, people with positive family history were more susceptible to acne. On the other hand, the results indicated there was a significant increase in sera levels of TLR-2 in patients with acne vulgaris compared to the controls group. Also, TLR-2 had a significant positive correlation with the severity of acne (p˃0.05, r=0.5). We concluded that adolescent, young adult, female gender, and positive family history appeared to be the most possible factors associated with acne vulgaris. Also, It's illustrated that the high levels of TLR-2 in acne and the positive correlation of TLR-2 with acne severity, revealed that TLR-2 has a role in the bad prognosis of acne vulgaris.