Coexistence and Relationship of Antikeratinocyte and Antimelanocyte Antibodies in Patients with Non-Segmental-Type Vitiligo

A Critical Appraisal of Vitiligo Etiologic Theories. Is Melanocyte Loss a Melanocytorrhagy?

“…The data summarized in Table 1 (references (5,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), indicate that both cellular and humoral autoimmune phenomena observed in NSV correlate with disease activity and association with other autoimmune disorders. Disease specificity is not clearly demonstrated since autoantibodies as well as melanocyte antigen-specific T-cell clones have been detected, albeit less frequently, in controls without NSV.…”

“…Concerning antibody driven damage to melanocytes (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), these mechanisms could be at work in vivo, because very few inflammatory cells may be required to induce antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) which target cell membrane antigens. Furthermore, complement membrane attack complexes do not require cellular support to lyse targeted cells (26).…”

Autoimmune Melanocyte Destruction in Vitiligo

“…When these mice were injected with purified IgG of vitiligo patients, it was observed that epidermal immunoglobulin deposits coincided with melanocyte destruction (Gilhar et al, 1995). However, reports on in situ immunoglobulin and complement van 1994;Uda et al, 1984;Yu et al, 1993). Furthermore, these deposits were observed on keratinocytes and not melanocytes.…”

“…These differentiation antigens all localize primarily to the melanosomes (Hearing, 1999), whereas it has been well established that antibodymediated killing requires membrane expression of the target antigens. Surprisingly, however, it was observed that patients' sera can induce in vitro damage to melanocytes via the classical pathway of complement activation and by antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (Norris et al, 1988), and that at least some of the antibodies recognize membrane-expressed melanocyte antigens (Naughton et al, 1983a(Naughton et al, , 1983bYu et al, 1993). Further, it was shown that TRP-1 can be expressed on the cell surface of human and mouse melanoma cells , suggesting that this differentiation antigen may represent a target for melanocyte destruction in vivo.…”

Autoantibodies Profile in Vitiligo

“…Moreover, antinuclear antibody and IgM-rheumatoid factor have been detected at a significant frequency in vitiligo patients [32]. Anti-keratinocyte intracellular antibodies that correlate with disease extent and activity have also been detected in vitiligo patients [62]. Tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1) is a critical enzyme for the correct trafficking of tyrosinase to melanosomes [63].…”