Vitiligo: The Destruction of Pigment

Aaron Hutsell

BMS 230 - 1

Vitiligo: The Destruction of Pigment

October 8, 2007

Professor Field

There are many genetic disorders that cause abnormalities in genes and chromosomes. Some result in physical disabilities, mental retardation, and even the dreaded cancer. One condition however can affect a person physically and psychologically. With this condition a person's life is turned upside down slowly but surely. Self-confidence plays a major role in their lives. Eventually that person does not have the urge to be seen outside of their own home. This condition I am referring to is known as Vitiligo.

Also known as leukoderma, Vitiligo is a skin condition that causes loss of pigment. The results are permanent white patches on the epidermis. Vitiligo usually affects people right before their twenties and is considered to be a rare disease; happening to only 1 in 2000 people. On the biology level, melanocytes, the cells that make pigment, are destroyed during the chronic condition of Vitiligo. This condition can vary from person to person. Some people may have small patches while others can practically have their entire bodies covered with Vitiligo. The patches also have the ability to join other white patches and progress more throughout the body. Vitiligo is more noticeable in areas that are exposed to the sun such as the hands and/or face. It is even more noticeable on people with darker skin. Vitiligo also develops white hair that grows on the affected skin.

There is no specific answer to the cause of Vitiligo except for the fact that the melanoctyes stop producing melanin. The immune system can either destroy the melanocytes by mistake or the melanocyte cells destroy themselves for whatever reason. There is however some evidence showing that this disease could be a genetic factor. New studies are getting closer to pinpointing the source of Vitiligo. NIH News presented a national health advisory on April 10, 2007. The health advisory stated, "In a study appearing in the March 22, New England Journal of Medicine, scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) have discovered a connection between a specific gene and the inflammatory skin condition Vitiligo, as well as a possible host of autoimmune diseases" (NIH News).

Researches sent out a questionnaire to families in the United Kingdom and found that Vitiligo was linked to a number of other autoimmune diseases such as thyroid disease, pernicious anemia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Addison's disease and others. "The researchers began a search for genes involved in Vitiligo almost a decade ago with the help of the Vitiligo Society in the United Kingdom". When researches searched the genome they found that the gene NALP1, was the key factor to autoimmune diseases developing, "...particularly autoimmune thyroid disease, says Dr. Spritz. "We know that about 20 percent of people with Vitiligo also get autoimmune thyroid disease, and this gene may be involved in mediating both of those, ... When we are attacked by viruses or bacteria, the innate immune system stimulates the inflammatory pathways and calls the rest of the immune system to action. NALP1 is probably a receptor for bacterial or viral signals. We don't know what these signals are, but now that we know what the gene is, we can use that knowledge to search for the signals that trigger autoimmune disease" (NIH News). Dr. Spritz is also acknowledged for confirming the map of systemic lupus erythematosus and/or vitiligo. "Spritz et al. (2004) confirmed the mapping of SLEV1 on chromosome