40 Years of Topical Tretinoin Use in Review

Featured Article

Free Full Text – A popular review article from the JDDonline Archives on tretinoin use over 40 years.

Luciana Nofal

From the vault, a free full-text article from the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology archives. This review paper provides an overview of the history and current uses of topical tretinoin, including mechanisms of action, approved indications and dosing, and associated safety and tolerability issues, as well as to speculated on potential therapeutic areas that may be targets for further research and future clinical applications.

This popular article, published in 2013, includes more than 10 pages of detailed findings around tretinoin. The table includes the article, authors, journal/citation and summaries for 61 publications over 40 years. The list of diseases for which the effectiveness of topical tretinoin has been evaluated is remarkably diverse. This is, in part, a testament to the complexities of retinoid biology and the protean consequences and advantages of interacting with retinoid receptors. Some clinical uses of tretinoin appear to take advantage of its keratolytic action, allowing increased penetration of medications with which it is coapplied, thus improving their efficacy.

Hilary E. Baldwin MD, Marge Nighland BS, Clare Kendall MA, David A. Mays PharmD MBA, Rachel Grossman MD, and Joan Newburger PhD