It’s Latin to me

The word comedo means a “glutton” in Latin and derives from a verb meaning to
eat. I guess the microcomedo must be a little glutton? The word is comer to those
of you who know some Spanish. Do you think the ancient Romans knew about the
voracious eating habits of P. acnes, or did they just think that acne was caused by
eating too much Roman junk food? Another conjecture has it that the ancients imag-
ined the blackhead to be a flesh-eating maggot or “flesh worm.” Gross!
The P. acnes produces the enzyme lipase, which can split apart cer-
tain fats (triglicerides) into smaller pieces (free fatty acids) so they
can digest them.
P. acnes eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, combined with the
force of the trapped sebum, can cause ruptures or leaks in the wall
of the comedo, allowing the free fatty acids into the surrounding
dermis. (Check out Chapter 2 for information about the dermis, the
skin layer that’s below your epidermis.)
Calling all white blood cells!
When the bacteria start to use their lipases to produce free fatty
acids, this causes other chemical 911 signals to be sent to your
white blood cells. That’s because the free fatty acids are very irri-
tating to the skin. Your body responds to the irritation by recruit-
ing an army of red and white blood cells (sounds like the Russian
revolution!) to seal off the area where the free fatty acids and bac-
teria are located. White blood cells are your body’s natural defense
system. They rush to the scene accompanied by red blood cells to
try to clean up the mess. Despite their good intentions, sometimes
these helpful little cells overdo it and produce inflammatory acne
lesions. The cleanup attempt results in red, swollen pimples or
pustules that may even lead to even larger lumps, papules, and
nodules. See Figure 3-5.