People with Vitiligo - Vitiligo Cure - Vitiligo Treatment

The researchers from St George’s, University of London, the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC) and the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes have revealed a link between gene and vitiligo plus other autoimmune diseases.

They analyzed two independent groups of families enrolled from 1996 – 2005 and obtained samples from a total of 656 Caucasian individuals from 114 extended families with vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases from America and the UK.

When the researchers started studying vitiligo they found that vitiligo patients had a risk of developing other autoimmune diseases, as do their relative, even those without vitiligo.

Researchers while searching the genome found that a key gene (NALP1) was involved in predisposing to vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases that ran in these families. NALP1 is a gene that controls the part of the immune system which is responsible for alerting the body about the viral and bacterial attacks.

During this research they got the answer of why the immune system attacks body’s own tissues. The answer was over-reactivity of the sensor NALP1. The over-reactivity of NALP1 could trigger a response to the wrong stimulus. All the samples and information collected from patients were sent to University of Colorado for analysis.

Richard Spritz lead investigator for this study said that NALP1 for the first time has been specifically implicated in autoimmune diseases. “Since NALP1 appears to be part of our body’s early-warning system for viral or bacterial attack, this gives us ideas about how to try to discover the environmental triggers of these diseases. This finding may also open up new approaches to treatment, possibly for many different autoimmune diseases.” he added.

Dr. Spritz and his team are planning soon begin arranging a clinical trial of a new treatment for vitiligo based on the discovery of NALP1. Dr. Spriztz anticipates labs using the information from the UCDHSC study to replicate or test the results in patients with other autoimmune diseases to see how broad potential applications might be.

“All diseases are complex, the result of different genes and environmental risk factors acting together in concert. But if NALP1 turns out to be one of the major genes involved in numerous autoimmune diseases, and if we can interrupt its negative effects, we may have the chance to treat many different chronic autoimmune disorders like vitiligo, lupus and psoriasis and perhaps eventually eliminate them altogether,” said Dr. Spritz.

Source: http://www.sgul.ac.uk

Patients with vitiligo, a skin disease characterized by patches of un-pigmented skin, had better re-pigmentation of these patches when they were treated with a combination of laser therapy and tacrolimus ointment than the patients who were treated only with laser therapy, according to an article in the September issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to this article one to two percent people around the world are affected by vitiligo. Recently, the 308 nanometer excimer laser has shown good results in treating vitiligo patients. Furthermore, a new topical ointment (tacrolimus) has also given good results.

Thierry Passeron, M.D., of Hopital de l’Archet, Nice, France, and colleagues examined the results of the 308-nm excimer laser therapy in combination with tacrolimus ointment on 14 vitiligo patients aged between twelve and sixty three years.

In this comparative prospective randomized intra individual study, patients were divided into two groups (A & B). Four to ten lesions were chosen from each patient. Group A was treated twice a week with the 308-nm excimer laser for a total of 24 sessions and topical 0.1 percent tacrolimus ointment was also applied twice a day to target lesions for patients in group A whereas Group B was only given laser treatment. A total of forty-three lesions were treated (23 in group A and 20 in group B). The researchers observed hundred percent re-pigmentation in all group A lesions and eighty percent in 17 out of 20 group B lesions.

Researchers also compared treated lesions with control lesions (which were not treated) on the opposite side of the body and did not observe any re-pigmentation.

The authors wrote that, “A re-pigmentation rate of 75 percent or more was obtained in 16 (70 percent) of the 23 group A lesions and in 4 (20 percent) of the 20 group B lesions.” They noticed that average number of sessions needed to see improvements in re-pigmentation was 10 for group A and 12 for group B.

The researchers concluded that, “The combination of 0.1 percent tacrolimus ointment applied twice daily and 308-nm excimer laser therapy performed twice a week gives excellent results on UV-sensitive and UV-resistant areas. The treatment was well tolerated, and the patients were satisfied.”

Source: http://www.jama.com/

University of Cincinnati (UC) discovered that melanocytes are not the only cells that create differences in skin coloration.  Instead there are some of the basic cells on the skin’s surface that influence pigment production and help control skin color.

This research has presented hope for new approaches to the treatment of skin pigment disorders that leave the skin blemished by light or dark blotches.

Raymond Boissy, PhD, and his team in their preclinical dermatological study, discovered that keratinocytes carry certain characteristics that could control skin pigmentation.

Epidermis (outer layer of skin) is composed of 96 percent of keratinocytes (surface skin cells) and 2 percent of melanocytes (pigment producing cell). keratinocytes give the skin structural integrity and it also helps in protecting the body from infection.

Boissy said that his team’s discoveries can help scientists formulate new drugs that change the physiological processes that cause pigmentation disorders such as vitiligo and melasma. He explained that he and his team isolated particular physiological properties that control the melanocytes functional abilities. This discovery is significant because a lot of pigment diseases are the consequence of malfunctioning of the melanocytes. According to him this set of new molecules can help patients with pigment disorders in creating uniform skin color.

Their previous research showed that keratinocytes play a role in skin coloration of genetic factors regulating the melanocyte. Further they found that there was no informationall difference between the melanosomes in keratinocytes for dark and light skin responsible for sorting within the keratinocyte. These cells arranged themselves based on ethnic background.

For this study they develop a human skin substitute model using a keratinocytes and melanocyte which they obtained from donated light and dark skin. They transplanted this skin in a mouse and allowed it to grow for about three months.

When the researchers transplanted keratinocytes from dark-skinned individuals to skin substitutes they got a darkening skin effect and got lightening skin effect when they transplanted keratinocytes from people with fair complexion into skin substitutes. They obtained intermediate skin color when they combined melanocytes and keratinocytes from light and dark skin together.

In addition, the researchers also discovered that quantity of pigment produced is influenced by keratinocytes. Boissy said that “the effect is subtle but, it shows that it’s not just genetics of the melanocyte that determines skin coloration”.

Source: http://www.uc.edu/

Scientists from the University of Cincinnati and Tokyo Medical University have made a significant discovery towards manipulating skin tone and color. The entailments of this research ranged from helping doctors develop more natural looking bio-engineered skin grafts to helping cosmetics companies build up new products for getting the perfect sunless tan. This research study showed how to manipulate skin tone and color using cells that were considered to play no important role in this function.

Gerald Weissmann said this study should lead to bio-engineered skin grafts that are similar to natural skin tone and color of recipients which may reduce the visibility of scars. This study also opened the door to new types of cosmetics which is grounded on the understanding of how and why skin deep differences in appearance evolved over millions of years.

Researchers have proven that Melanocytes (cells responsible for pigmentation) can be controlled by most occurring skin cells called Keratinocytes which does not produce any pigment of their own. Working with bio-engineered skin grafts the researchers dealt with various mixtures Keratinocytes from people with diverse skin types and colors.

The researchers have determined that using Keratinocytes on bio-engineered skin graft from individuals with a lighter skin had a lightening effect on the material, while Keratinocytes from individuals with a darker skin had a darkening effect. This is a significant discovery as it shows a link between Keratinocytes and Melanocytes.

The senior researcher Raymond Boissy said that this study would help individuals with pigment diseases such as Vitiligo, melasma and age spotting by making their skin more healthy looking.

Source: http://www.faseb.org/

Melanin (insoluble pigment that gives color to skin & hair) is produced by Melanocytes (cell in the basal layer of skin) and then distributed to other cells. But not every cell in layers of skins gets pigmented.

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) have answered the question about delivery of melanin to appropriate locations.

“Pigment recipient cells essentially tell Melanocytes where to deposit melanin, and the pattern of those recipients determines pigment patterns. Recipient cells act like the outlines in a child’s coloring book; as recipient cells develop, they form a ‘picture’ that is initially colorless but is then ‘colored in’ by the Melanocytes.” said Janice Brissette (lead researcher).

Humans’ melanin is deposited in both the skin and hair whereas in mammals like mice it is deposited primarily in the coat, leaving the skin beneath the coat un-pigmented. Melanocytes deposit melanin through cellular extensions called dendrites that extend to other cells in the epidermis (the outer layer of skin) or the hair follicles. But the mechanism that determines whether melanin is delivered to a particular cell is unknown.

The MGH-CBRC research team supposed that a mouse gene known as Foxn1 might have some involvement. Lack of Foxn1 is responsible for ‘nude mice,’ which possess hair that are brittle and this leads to complete hairlessness and other skin diseases. A similar disorder exists in humans with inactivation of the related gene.

The researchers developed a strain of transgenic mice in which Foxn1 was misexpressed in cells that do not synthesize melanin because of which normally colorless areas became pigmented. When they examined the skin of the transgenic mice it appeared that Melanocytes were contacting and delivering melanin to the cells that had Foxn1 abnormally activated. The corresponding tissues of normal mice had no pigment.

Examination of human skin samples revealed the human version of Foxn1 which was also expressed in cells known to be pigment recipient cells. Further experimentation exposed that the Foxn1 signals Melanocytes through a protein called Fgf2 whose levels rise with the rise in Foxn1 expression.

“Foxn1 makes epithelial cells into pigment recipients, which attract Melanocytes and stimulate pigment transfer, engineering their own pigmentation,” says Brissette. She and her team still signals that the Foxn1/Fgf2 pathway probably has additional functions in the skin and there may be other pathways responsible for the targeting of pigment.

“We know that Foxn1 and Fgf2 act in concert with other factors and function within a larger network of genes. Our next step will be to identify other genes that can confer the pigment recipient phenotype or control the targeting of pigment,” added Brissette. Her research explains disorders such as Vitiligo, age spots, the graying of hair and even the deadly melanocyte-based skin cancer melanoma.

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