VITILIGO

Abstract

Since the advent of modern study of pigment, little has been done toward the solution of the problem of vitiligo. Bloch¹ noted absence of the dioxyphenylalanine reaction in the depigmented region. Miescher² utilized a patch of vitiligo in some of his studies of chromatophores and found that chromatophores in the depigmented areas take up melanin injected intradermally. McCarthy³ stated that the histologic change consists of disappearance of the chromatophores (melanoblasts [S.W.B.]) from the cells of the lower portion of the epithelium. Gans⁴ noted partial or complete depigmentation of the patches of vitiligo with hyperpigmentation of the border. He stated that inflammatory and atrophic changes have been observed, along with nerve changes of the atrophic type. He appropriately called attention to the difficulty in interpretation of cutaneous nerve sections. Nadel⁵ studied the pigment which had appeared in treated vitiliginous patches and determined it to be melanin.