In the most basic and easiest to understand terms, scars develop at the location of an injury to the tissue. Scars are the visible signs of injury and tissue repair. In regard to acne, the injury comes about through the body's inflammatory reaction to sebum, dead skin cells in the plugged sebaceous follicle, and bacteria. There are in essence, two kinds of scars. The first one are depressed areas like ice-pick scars. The second kind is raised thickened tissue like keloids.
At the time when tissue endures an injury, the body calls in its repair crew to the injury location. Some of the working factors that make up the repair crew are white blood cells and a variety of inflammatory molecules.
The inflammatory molecules and white blood cells can stay at the spot of active acne lesions for weeks. Anyone who is susceptible to scarring, the outcome can become an acne scar.
Some people tend to be more vulnerable to scarring than others. Often, scarring occurs because of extreme inflammatory nodulocystic acne that takes place deep inside the skin. Scarring can occur from inflamed lesions that are more superficial.
