Oral communication, iL20

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

Vitiligo: an up-to-date

Latest research efforts have improved our current knowledge of vitiligo and vitiligo patients. From the clinical standpoint, the Vitiligo European Task Force presented a consensus definition of the disease and a method to assess treatment outcome using a system which combines analysis of disease extension, stage of disease (staging), and disease progression (spreading), which is now routinely applied in several vitiligo centres. Although mixed forms have recently described, segmental and non segmental vitiligo (NSV) were clearly demonstrated to be different entities because the features of inflammation and autoimmunity were strongly linked only to NSV, together with a familial background of vitiligo and autoimmunity. New attention has been turned toward subjective symptoms and discomfort of patients, and a strict collaboration between doctors and vitiligo patients’ associations led to the identification of top research areas for the treatment of this pigmentation disorder, including systemic immunosuppressants, topical treatments, light therapy, melanocyte-stimulating hormone analogues, gene therapy, and the impact of psychological interventions on the quality of life of patients with vitiligo. In addition, the importance of Koebner phenomenon has been recently highlighted by the Vitiligo European Task Force, proposing a new scoring system to allow an evaluation of Koebner phenomenon in daily practice or in experimental studies. Concerning pathobiology, vitiligo is still a disease not well understood. There is a strong body of biological evidence supporting an autoimmune basis for most cases of generalized vitiligo, although a clear definition of autoimmune vitiligo is still lacking. Genetic studies pointed out that generalized vitiligo behaves as a complex trait, being a polygenic, multifactorial disease, and some new vitiligo susceptibility genes have been identified in the last years; some of which are associated with other autoimmune diseases. Recent studies have suggested that the modifications of lipid membrane components in vitiligo cells may be the biochemical basis for the mitochondrial impairment and the subsequent production of intracellular reactive oxygen species following exposure to a mild stress. Additionally, new possible repair mechanisms for DNA damage have been proposed in vitiligo.

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