If you are one of the 45 million people who suffer with Rosacea then there is good news on the horizon. Scientists have finally found the cause of Rosacea, which has baffled the medical community for over a hundred years. In a study published in August 2007 online edition of Nature Medicine's, the researchers showed that Rosacea is caused by an abundance of abnormal skin proteins. This protein is called cathelicidin, which is a natural protein that protects the skin from infection.



Rosacea is a skin condition that effects fair-skinned people of mostly northwestern European descent. It is also about three times more common in women. It usually effects people between 30 and 60. It begins as flushing and redness on the central face and across the cheeks, nose, or forehead but can also less commonly affect the neck and chest. As it advances it causes small, red, pus-filled bumps or pustules to form that look like acne.

The way our bodies process cathelicidin determines whether this type of protein will defend against infection or cause inflammation and skin irritation. The study showed that people with Rosacea had too much cathelicidin most of which was in an abnormal form.

Currently the only way to treat Rosacea is to treat its symptoms and things that trigger an outbreak such as spicy food and heat. Antibiotics are used to treat the acne like symptoms and intense light and laser therapy that uses multiple wavelengths of light are used to treat dilated blood vessels in the face. Now that scientists know the cause treatments can be developed that will treat the cause of the disease. One of the more effective treatments is the use of tetracycline antibiotics. It turns out that this type of antibiotic is more effective because it happens to inhibit cathelicidin processing.

Now that researchers can concentrate on the cause you can expect to see new treatments in the near future that will help control the body's production of cathelicidin proteins. They will also be looking for the reason that patients with Rosacea not only produce too much cathelicidin but also why they produce abnormal cathelicidin proteins. The combination should produce more effective treatments.

Cathelicidin proteins have connections with other skin conditions such as Eczema. Hopefully as scientist develop a better understanding of cathelicidin proteins and the way our bodies produce them, they will be able to develop better treatments for a variety of skin conditions.