Immunohistochemical Study Of C-kit On Amelanotic Melanocyte In Follicle From Vitiligo Patients

ObjectiveTo investigate the expression of c-kit on amelanotic melanocyte(AMMC) in follicle from vitiligo patients and analyse preliminarily the role of AMMC and SCF/c-kit signal pathway in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.Methods1.Research object and grouping:depigmented scalps,free follicle from depigmented scalps and free follicle from pigmented scalps were from 31 patients with vitiligo in our hospital;normal scalps and free follicle were from 30 head injured people and 30 healthy people respectively.2.Immunohistochemistry:three antibodies such as HMB-45,NKI/beteb and c-kit were used to stain sections from scalps and free follicle from vitiligo patients and the healthy people.HPIAS-1000 color image analysis system was adopted to measure the average area and the mean optical density of positive reacted cells.SPSS13.0 statistics software was used to analyze the results.Results1.There was no HMB-45 positive cells in outer root sheath of follicle.2.NKI/beteb positive cells were small and located in groups at the middle and lower of outer root sheath(ORS),with their retraction of the dendrites.They only expressed premelanosomal antigens but not melanosomal antigen as HMB-45.There were no significant difference of AMMC in quantities between vitiligo patients and normal controls(P＞0.05)Conclusion1.Amelanotic melanoctyes located in the ORS are morphologically and functionally immature,which were no significant difference in quantities between vitiligo patients and healthy controls.2.The expression of c-kit receptor on AMMC in follicle from vitiligo patients was lower than that in nomal contols suggests that abnormal SCF/c-kit signal pathway could play an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.