Poster presentation, P69

Official XXIst International Pigment Cell Conference website - 21-24 Sept 2011, Bordeaux - France | updated: September 04 2011

Determinants of success of melanocyte transplantation in vitiligo:Role of cytotoxic CD8 Tcells

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The role of cytotoxic T cells in vitiligo has long been recognised but the relationship of cytotoxic T cells with success of melanocyte transplant is unknown. To assess the relationship of cytotoxic T cells with the success of melanocyte transplantation METHODS: 15 patients with generalized vitiligo with body surface area involved < 10% were included in the study. Patients were divided equally into 3 stability groups: Group 1 with clinical stability > 3 months but < 1 year, Group 2 with clinical stability ≥1 year but < 2 years, Group 3 with clinical stability ≥ 2 years. A single vitiliginous patch was chosen for melanocyte transplantation using suction blister grafting. A 3 mm punch biopsy was taken from the margin of the patch. Similar punch biopsy taken from normal skin of 4 patients served as control. Immunohistochemistry was done using antibodies for CD8 on all the biopsied samples. Positive cells were counted and expresseed as percentage of total lymphocytes. Repigmentation was assessed after 6 months. Those with greater than 75% repigmentation were labelled as responders and those with less than 75% repigmentation were labelled as non responders. RESULTS: None of the patients in group 1 responded to treatment while all 5 patients in group 3 responded to the treatment. In group 2, 2 patients (40%) responded to treatment. The mean CD8 % were highest in group 1 (4.2±1.643), comparatively low in group 2 (1.6±1.34) and lowest in group 3(0.4±0.54). The results were statistically significant (p = 0.007). Also, the mean cytotoxic T cell percentage was significantly higher in the non responders (3±2.07) than in responders (1±1.41) (p=0.035) while there was no difference with relationship to the controls. CONCLUSION: A higher percentage of cytotoxic CD8 cells is associated with failure of melanocyte transplantation.

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