Eruptive sebaceous hyperplasia has been reported to appear in male organ transplant patients treated with an immunosuppressive drug, cyclosporine. In addition, it has been reported that there is no onset of eruptive sebaceous hyperplasia on other immunosuppressive medications with azathioprine or prednisolone. Therefore, cyclosporine may directly influence sebaceous gland functions such as sebocyte lipogenesis and proliferation. In the present study, when hamster sebocytes were treated with cyclosporine, oil-red O staining revealed that intracellular lipid droplet formation was augmented in a dose-dependent manner. As in the case of 5-dihydrotestosterone (5-DHT), the augmented lipid droplets resulted from an increased production of triacylglycerol (TG), which is a major component of sebum. Furthermore, when hamster sebocytes were treated with cyclosporine in the presence of 5-DHT, cell proliferation was dose-dependently increased. Taken together with the fact that the skin is one of the principal sites of the accumulation of cyclosporine, these results suggest that cyclosporine directly augments not only sebum production but also sebocyte proliferation, which may cause eruptive sebaceous hyperplasia in organ transplant patients.

Augmentation of Sebum Production and Cell Proliferation by Cyclosporine in Hamster Sebocytes in vitro