Thematic review series: Skin Lipids. Sebaceous gland lipids: friend or foe?
Open accessAbstract
Sebaceous glands are intriguing glands that are found throughout the human body except on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The true function of these glands has yet to be determined, but there are several theories, including antioxidant effects, antibacterial effects, and transport of pheromones. Sebaceous glands produce lipids that are involved in the pathogenesis of one of the most prevalent diseases of adolescence, acne. Although the majority of lipids produced by the sebaceous gland are also produced in other areas of the body, there are two that are characteristic of the sebaceous gland, wax esters and squalene. This review seeks to present an update on the physiology of the sebaceous glands, with particular emphasis on the production of sebaceous lipids.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Sebum is primarily composed of cell debris and nonpolar (neutral) lipids, namely triglycerides, wax esters, squalene, cholesterol and free fatty acids.
“Sebum is primarily composed of cell debris and nonpolar (neutral) lipids, namely triglycerides, wax esters, squalene, cholesterol and free fatty acids.3,4”
From Sebaceous-immunobiology is orchestrated by sebum lipids (2017) · cites this paper as [4]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Deregulated expression of c-Myc depletes epidermal stem cells
Waikel, R. L., Kawachi, Y., Waikel, P. A., Wang, X.-J., & Roop, D. R. (2001) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/88889 · Cited by 318 · see citing works
Identification of the Δ-6 Desaturase of Human Sebaceous Glands: Expression and Enzyme Activity
Ge, L., Gordon, J. S., Hsuan, C., Stenn, K., & Prouty, S. M. (2003) · Journal of Investigative Dermatology · doi:10.1046/j.1523-1747.2003.12123.x · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Strauss, J., D. T. Downing, F. J. Ebling, and M. E. Stewart. 1991. Sebaceous glands. In Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Skin. L. Goldsmith, editor. Oxford University Press, New York. 712-740.
- Koster, M., K. Huntzinger, and D. Roop. 2002. Epidermal differentiation: transgenic/knockout mouse models reveal genes involved in stem cell fate decisions and commitment to differen- tiation. J. Invest. Dermatol. Symp. Proc. 7: 41-45.
- Cases, S., S. J. Smith, Y. W. Zheng, H. M. Myers, S. R. Lear, E. Sande, S. Novak, C. Collins, C. B. Welch, A. J. Lusis, et al. 1998. Identification of a gene encoding an acyl CoA:diacylglycerol acyl- transferase, a key enzyme in triacylglycerol synthesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 95: 13018-13023.
- Smith, T. M., K. L. Gilliland, G. A. Clawson, and D. M. Thiboutot. IGF induces SREBP-1 expression and lipogenesis in SEB-1 sebo- cytes via activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K)/AKT pathway. J. Invest. Dermatol. In press.
- Kigman, A. 1963. The uses of sebum. In Advances in Biology of Skin. R. A. W. Montagna and A. F. Silver, editors. Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK.
- Jiang, Y. J., B. Lu, P. Kim, G. Paragh, G. Schmitz, P. M. Elias, and K. R. Feingold. 2007. PPAR and LXR activators regulate ABCA12 expression in human keratinocytes. J. Invest. Dermatol. In press.
- Wheatley, V. R. 1986. The sebaceous glands. In The Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Skin. A. Jarrett, editor. Academic Press, New York. 2705-2971.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Picardo, M., Ottaviani, M., Camera, E., & Mastrofrancesco, A. (2009) · Dermato-Endocrinology · doi:10.4161/derm.1.2.8472 · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Regeneration of skin appendages and nerves: current status and further challenges
Weng, T., Wu, P., Zhang, W., Zheng, Y., Li, Q., Jin, R., Chen, H., You, C., Guo, S., Han, C., et al. (2020) · Journal of Translational Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12967-020-02248-5 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Sebaceous-immunobiology is orchestrated by sebum lipids
Lovászi, M., Szegedi, A., Zouboulis, C. C., & Törőcsik, D. (2017) · Dermato-Endocrinology · doi:10.1080/19381980.2017.1375636 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
“Sebum is primarily composed of cell debris and nonpolar (neutral) lipids, namely triglycerides, wax esters, squalene, cholesterol and free fatty acids.(3,4)”
BackgroundTREM2 macrophages induced by human lipids drive inflammation in acne lesions
Do, T. H., Ma, F., Andrade, P. R., Teles, R., de Andrade Silva, B. J., Hu, C., Espinoza, A., Hsu, J.-E., Cho, C.-S., Kim, M., et al. (2022) · Science Immunology · doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.abo2787 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
“The main lipid components of sebum include squalene, triglycerides, free fatty acids, wax esters, and cholesterol (14).”
BackgroundBlimp1+ cells generate functional mouse sebaceous gland organoids in vitro
Feldman, A., Mukha, D., Maor, I. I., Sedov, E., Koren, E., Yosefzon, Y., Shlomi, T., & Fuchs, Y. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10261-6 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Maier, H., Meixner, M., Hartmann, D., Sandhoff, R., Wang-Eckhardt, L., Zöller, I., Gieselmann, V., & Eckhardt, M. (2011) · Journal of Biological Chemistry · doi:10.1074/jbc.m111.231977 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
- Authors
- Smith, K. R., & Thiboutot, D. M.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thiboutot, D.M.
- ORCID
- Thiboutot, D.M.
- Venue
- Journal of Lipid Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-02
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 271-281
- ISSN
- 0022-2275 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2042323290
- Cited by
- 388
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 0.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Lipid Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Acne and Rosacea Treatments and Effects
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Cholesterol and Lipid Metabolism
- Keywords
- sebaceous glands, sebaceous lipids, wax esters, squalene, acne pathogenesis, skin lipids, antioxidant activity, antibacterial activity
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Lipids, Sebaceous Glands, Sebum
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
