Author(s)

Atsushi Tanemura^1*, Ryoko Kawabe^1*, Yuka Sudo¹, Kazunori Yokoi¹, Takanobu Kabasawa², Mitsuru Futakuchi², Tamio Suzuki³, Manabu Fujimoto¹

¹Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, Osaka University, Graduate Suita, Osaka, Japan.
²Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan.
³Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan.

Although perifollicular repigmentation in the vitiligo lesions is owing to activation of follicular melanocyte stem cells and/or precursor cells followed by supplying matured melanocytes, the underlying mechanism of diffuse repigmentation on the whole vitiligo surface remains still unknown. In addition to the presence of remaining melanocytes, it is conceivable that dermal melanocyte precursor cells contribute to induce diffuse repigmentation after treatment. Therefore, we investigated here whether dermal and follicular melanocyte precursor cells were reduced or not in vitiligo lesions. We performed an immunostaining for Nestin and p75NGFR as dermal melanocyte precursor cells and MITF/Fzd4 as follicular melanocyte precursor cells and compared the positive cells number between lesions and non-lesions (n = 11). Although MITF⁺/Fzd4⁺ cells in the hair follicle were significantly decreased in number in the lesions, Nestin⁺ and p75NGFR⁺ cells were not. This result indicates that dermal precursor cells could be retained in the vitiligo lesions but be disturbed to differentiate into matured melanocytes.

Melanocyte Precursor Cells, p75NGFR, Nestin, Frizzled4, Vitiligo

Tanemura, A. , Kawabe, R. , Sudo, Y. , Yokoi, K. , Kabasawa, T. , Futakuchi, M. , Suzuki, T. and Fujimoto, M. (2023) Not Follicular but Dermal Melanocyte Precursors Are Histopathologically Retained in Vitiligo. Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 13, 38-44. doi: 10.4236/jcdsa.2023.131004.