Histopathologic Features in Vitiligo

BACKGROUND: It is sometimes difficult to differentiate vitiligo from other hypopigmented disorders only by clinical features. However, only a few reports are available on histopathological changes in vitiligo. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to delineate the microscopic alterations that are important in the diagnosis or differential diagnosis of vitiligo. METHODS: We examined histopathologic findings of 100 cases with vitiligo and compared them with those of perilesional normal skin. We also compared them to 30 cases with nevus depigmentosus skin. RESULTS: The general histologic features of vitiligo showed more frequent basal hypopigmentation and dermal inflammation than perilesional normal skin. Basal hypopigmentation compared with perilesional normal skin was also found in nevus depigmentosus but the incidence was much lower than vitiligo skin. In Fontana-Masson staining, 16% of vitiliginous skin showed the presence of melanin. The ratio of pigmented area to epidermal area was 0.06% in vitiligo, while 17% in perilesional normal skin and 8.9% in nevus depigmentosus skin. In immunohistochemical staining for melanocytes, 12% of vitiliginous skin showed the presence of melanocytes in NKI/beteb stain, and their average number of melanocytes was 7.68/mm2 while 384.36/mm2 in normal skin. In nevus depigmentosus lesion, the average number of melanocytes was also decreased but the amount of decrease was much less than that of vitiligo. MART-1 staining showed similar findings to NKI/beteb staining. However, S-100 protein positive cells were detected 100% of vitiligo skin and their average number 175.36/mm2, which is much higher than those of NKI/beteb and MART-1 staining. Especially, S-100 protein positive cells were increased in inflammatory vitiligo than noninflammatory vitiligo. This may be due to Langerhans cells, which were increased in inflammatory vitiligo. We also confirmed the presence of melanocytes on electron microscopy, which showed vacuolization and tansepidermal elimination. CONCLUSIONS: There exist a few melanocytes and melanin in some vitiligo. Therefore the diagnosis of vitiligo should be made considering clinicopathologic features together.

Author dc:creator

• 김, 윤전

Contributors dc:contributor

• 김, 유찬
• 대학원 의학과
• 200424171

• immunohistochemistry
• melanocyte
• vitiligo

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

http://dcoll.ajou.ac.kr:9080/dcollection/jsp/common/DcLoOrgPer.jsp?sItemId=000000001131
000000001131

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.ajou.ac.kr:201003/1452