New insights in vitiligo: cellular immune response

Background Vitiligo is a skin disorder that affects 1% to 2% of the world population, independently of ethnicity. It presents with white plaques and skin discoloration. The presence of antibodies against melanocytes confirms the autoimmune phenomena in this disease. Regarding cellular imune response in active vitiligo, it seems to be an imbalance between T cell CD8+ and CD4+, and, moreover, an altered expression of Natural Killer (NK) in periphery, although very few data are available. We evaluated the cellular immune effect (T cell expression) in peripheral blood in vitiligo patients who received antigenic stimulus (autologous graft), in comparison with patients with inactive Vitiligo who received autologous graft in comparison with patients with active Vitiligo without grafting.