Etiology and Pathogenesis of Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a kind of common skin disease, the characters of this disease’s is skin will suddenly appear some white patches on patient’s body and local part. There is also free from exudation or scaling or crusting. The patients will not feel pain and itchiness.

Vitiligo is due to partial or generalized dipigmentation or disappearance of the black pigment. Vitiligo will either affect the patient’s health, or lead to the internal organ’s function. It also will not lead to patient’s life span shorten. However it has the great impact to the patient’s image. Such as facial part, both hands, and other exposure area. Some of the vitiligo patients probably have low self esteem because of that, some severe case will cause the some social interaction barrier. For the ordinary people, they think vitiligo will infect to others. But it is not right.

For occurrence of vitiligo and its pathogenesis

Although vitiligo has been affected the human being thousands, but we still haven’t found out what is the pathogenesis of this disease. Now although we have obtained a lot of experiences from the clinic and some histopathology, pathophysiology, but we still can not understand the causing factors and other pathogenesis, and immunity etc. Nowadays here are few popular theories, such as heredity, autoimmunity theory, destruction of melanocytes, neurochemical factors, and so on.

Vitiligo have the hereditary background, the patients have the positive family history. Abroad scholars reports that if some one patients family members with a genetic background, the next generation suffering from vitiligo possibility would be 18, 75% to 38%.