Modern Medical Laboratory Journal

Vitiligo is a skin condition where patches of skin lose their color due to the loss of pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. The exact cause is complex and involves autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors. The immune system attacks and destroys melanocytes, resulting in depigmented patches. Cellular and molecular processes include immune system dysfunction, oxidative stress, and genetic susceptibility. Further research is ongoing to fully understand these processes and develop effective treatments. The treatment of vitiligo, which aims at repigmentation, depends both on the clinical characteristics of the disease as well as on molecular markers that may predict the response to treatment. Therapies that combine more than one cell type, such as melanocytes and keratinocytes, or more than one method of treatment, such as the addition of NV-UVB to another treatment, increase the chances of >90% repigmentation. Neural crest cell-derived melanocytes are the melanin-producing cells of the skin; several melanocyte cell death mechanisms have been proposed to explain the origin of vitiligo. As such, the transplantation of healthy cells shows great promise for treating vitiligo patients. Several methods for the delivery of non-cultured melanocytes into the affected skin areas of patients have been attempted, including transplantation onto dermabraded or laser-abraded areas. In this approach, the skin sample is shortly incubated with trypsin and centrifuged before spreading on the recipient area. As the number of melanocytes in this method is not increased in culture, its efficacy might be lower compared to cultured melanocyte transplantation.
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