One-Year Follow-Up of Vitiligo Patients Treated with Autologous Non-Cultured Melanocytes

Vitiligo is a long-term multifactorial polygenic disorder, characterized by the patchy loss of pigments in the skin. Several treatments including therapeutic creams and oral drugs are used to treat vitiligo with varying degrees of success. Some medical treatments can reduce the severity of the disease, but it is difficult to cure the disorder. Autologous non-cultured melanocyte transplantation is an effective method of vitiligo treatment. The utilization of appropriate cell suspension is a safe and efficient strategy to cure such hypopigmentation disorder.

The aim of this study was to follow up patients suffering from generalized and stable vitiligo who were treated with transplanted cells. Patients with patches in four different parts (forehead, eyelids, trunks, and hands) were selected because skin thickness varied among different body parts. We compared melanin repigmentation in these areas.

We recruited 39 patients with generalized and stable vitiligo who had patches on their forehead, eyelids, trunks, and hands. Partial grafts were taken from the gluteal regions of all patients. Epidermal cells including non-cultured melanocyte and keratinocyte suspensions were enzymatically isolated and found to be of > 98% viability. Cells were injected intraepidemally. After a 12-month follow-up, repigmentation was observed.

The mean repigmentation score continued to improve up to 12 months post-transplantation. The obtained results confirmed that the cellular suspension that consisted of a mixture of epidermal cells improved to restore the normal color of the repigmentation rate. The number of received cells per cm2 positively influenced the repigmentation score. Patches located on the face, neck, and trunk areas showed significantly higher responses to treatment. The pigmentation score was classified as “poor” (1% - 25%), “moderate” (26% - 50%), and “good” (51% - 75%). This study is a research and clinical study with a brief report registered with the Ethics Committee of Avicenna Research Institute, clinical trials (letter number: 93/22/01/89), Tehran, Iran.

The application of autologous non-cultured melanocyte-keratinocyte cell suspension could restore the patchy skin color to a near-normal level and the majority of the patients were satisfied with the results.