Vitiligo is a complex disease producing asymptomatic depigmentation with a heavy psychological burden. It affects over a 100 million people worldwide.
Vitiligo is a non-lethal, non-contagious disease and it does not cause any organic harm. Vitiligo is characterized by loss of melanin in the skin, which turns it milky white in irregular patches. This change in appearance dramatically affects the psychological wellbeing of the person and creates many problems in her or his life.
Complete knowledge of its etiology has been elusive for decades of intense research. During the past few years important findings started to shed light on its causes and pathogenesis of depigmentation.
None of these hypotheses has been demonstrated, and according to the available data, it is likely that the loss of epidermal and follicular melanocytes in vitiligo may be the result of several different pathogenic mechanisms.
Attempts to identify genes involved in susceptibility to vitiligo have involved gene expression studies, genetic association studies of candidate genes, and genome-wide linkage analyses to discover new genes. These studies have begun to yield results that shed light on the mechanisms of vitiligo pathogenesis.
Treatment for vitiligo is difficult and prolonged. Nevertheless, at present considerable knowledge accumulated during several decades on the pathogenic mechanisms, revealed important clues for designing new strategies to improve vitiligo condition. With available medical therapies, high repigmentation percentages mostly on facial and neck lesions are achieved, although they are less effective on trunk and limbs and poor on the acral parts of the extremities.
Although there is no therapeutic full solution yet, some treatment may induce good results in most patients.
