Vitiligo is an acquired skin disease that significantly impacts the quality of life of patients. Medical treatment of vitiligo includes the use of melanocyte transplant, but the results are variable. We have treated 4 patients with either focal or generalized stable vitiligo using a graft of autologous melanocytes' culture on a denuded amniotic membrane (AM). A culture biopsy was obtained in every patient and grown in melanocytes' media for 10-14 days after which cells were transferred to a denuded AM and transplanted into the achromic lesions. Patients were followed for up to 6 months using clinical assessment of achromic lesions. Treated areas ranged between 4 cm 2 and 210.6 cm 2 . Response to treatment was excellent in all patients with 90-95% repigmentation success rate. Our results demonstrate that transplantation of autologous melanocytes cultured on AM is a new, simple, and effective treatment for stable vitiligo.
Fox Fordyce disease (FFD) has been recently described as an adverse effect of laser hair removal. It is an apocrine gland disorder characterized by pruritus and a folliculocentric papular eruption in apocrine sweat gland areas. Different etiologies have been proposed to be the cause of this entity. It has been suggested that a fisical factor could contribute to FFD phatogenesis. We report a new case of FFD after laser hair removal.
Partial unilateral lentiginosis (PUL) is a rare pigmentary disorder characterized by multiple lentigines grouped within an area of normal skin, often in a segmental pattern and appearing at birth or in childhood. There is no established standard treatment for this condition. We present two cases of PUL succesfully treated with alexandrite Q-switched laser. In our cases, this laser proved to be a safe and effective treatment for cosmetically disfiguring lentigines. Special precautions are needed when treating dark-skinned patients because side effects are more likely. We propose that this modality be considered in the treatment of this rare disorder.
Vitiligo is a disfiguring disease with no definitive treatment options that significantly affects patients' quality of life. We aimed to compare, for what we believe to be the first time, the repigmentation efficacy of cultured epidermal cell suspension (CES) and amniotic membrane (AM)-cultured epidermal cell grafting (CEG) in the treatment of stable vitiligo. (December 15, 2010, to June 5, 2013, randomized, double-blind, intraindividually placebo-controlled clinical trial with a 6-month posttreatment follow-up period (last follow-up, November 26, 2012) was carried out in the dermatology department of the University Clinic of Navarra, Spain. The study was approved by the local institutional review board (Comité Ético de Investigación Clínica de Navarra, Health Department, Government of Navarra, Spain). Written informed consent was received from all patients. The participants did not receive financial compensation.Of 30 eligible patients with stable leukoderma, 24 individuals (15 women; age range, 18-57 years) were included in the final analyses. Dermatologic examination was performed on each patient to select one large vitiligo lesion (≥90 cm 2 ) or several smaller vitiligo lesions (up to 5 lesions, ≥90 cm 2 in total) per patient.Amniotic membranes were obtained during elective cesarean delivery as described. 1 Melanocyte growth medium M2 (M2; PromoCell) was used for the culture. A superficial shave biopsy (0.5 cm 2 ) was taken from pigmented buttock skin under local anesthesia. Epidermal cells were obtained (Dispase II neutral protease, grade II; Roche; and TrypLE Select enzyme; Gibco-Life Technologies) as described. 1 Cells were subcultured in two 75-cm 2 culture flasks. When 70% to 80% confluence was reached,
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