What Causes Vitiligo?

Although the cause of vitiligo is not clear nowadays, it can be broadly summarized as the following five factors.

(1) Psychoneurochemical doctrine:

Many clinical observations show that psychoneurological factors have a close relationship with the occurrence of vitiligo. It is estimated that about 2/3 of cases have mental trauma, overwork, overthinking, worrying after the disease, sleeplessness, little eating, and other mental overstress in the cavalry or lesion development stage.

(2) Autoimmune theory:

In recent years, it is observed that many vitiligo patients and their relatives have some other autoimmune diseases, the common ones are thyroiditis, hyper- or hypothyroidism, diabetes, chronic adrenal insufficiency, pernicious anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, malignant melanoma, others such as focal enteritis, lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, bronchitis, and pemphigus, etc. The incidence for them is also higher than the general population. In contrast, anti-thyroglobulin and anti-smooth muscle, anti-gastric lining cells, or anti-adrenal tissue organ-specific antibodies have also been found in the sera of vitiligo patients, and the detection rate is significantly higher. Moreover, the incidence of vitiligo is 10-15 times higher in patients with autoimmune diseases than in the general population. In addition, vitiligo has a high rate of homozygous reaction. The current tendency is to think that homozygous reaction belongs to an autoimmune phenomenon. All of these indicate that vitiligo is closely related to the body's immune dysfunction.

(3) Melanocyte self-destruction theory: the basic lesion of vitiligo

It is the epidermal melanocytes, that partially or completely lost function, resulting in a significant reduction of epidermal melanocytes and melanin pigment. Intermediate substances in the process of melanogenesis are monophenols or polyphenols, which inhibit the synthesis of pigments in the body through the ability of dopa to form pigments. Experimentally, phenols and catechols have been shown to have damaging effects on normal melanocytes.

(3) Tyrosine and copper ion relative deficiency theory:

The process of melanin production is a complex biochemical process. And dopa is both melanin and adrenaline predecessor, both derived from tyrosine, oxidized by tyrosine when mental tension will consume a lot of adrenal hormones, this time, dopa is mainly directed to the synthesis of adrenaline. The synthesis of melanin in the meantime will be affected, which can reasonably explain mental tension and other stress factors caused by vitiligo.

(4) Genetic factors:

It is believed that vitiligo may be an autosomal dominant skin disease, which has been found to develop in both monozygotic twins, as well as within families. But the positive families of vitiligo are reported differently from country to country, according to foreign statistics: the incidence of vitiligo among relatives of vitiligo patients is 18%-40%.

Some vitiligo patients can not find any causative factors, it is generally believed that the onset of its genetic quality in individuals, in a variety of internal and external pathogenic factors stimulates the performance of the immune function, neuropsychiatric, and endocrine, metabolic function and other aspects of the disorder, resulting in the inhibition of the tyrosinase system or the destruction of melanocytes so that the production of melanin is impaired, and eventually lead to pigment loss.