The Relationship between Catecholamines and Vitiligo

Catecholamines are neurological substances that contain catechol and amine groups. Catecholamines include norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine.

The most important physiological function of catecholamines is to enhance the body's ability to adapt under the influence of any strain factor. By:

(1) Enhancing the sensitivity of the central nervous system to peripheral responses, maintaining a state of arousal and alertness. (2) Selectively increasing the blood supply to vital organs such as the heart, lungs, brain, and skeletal muscles, increasing cardiac output and pulmonary ventilation, promoting neuromuscular transmission and fatigue resistance. (3) Promoting the breakdown of fat, protein, and glycogen to glucose for heat production and energy supply to ensure the body's needs. And (4) promote the secretion of hormones such as adrenocorticotropic hormone, renin, and glucagon to counteract harmful stimuli and ensure the effective response of tissues to catecholamines, which enhance the stress capacity of the body. Therefore, catecholamines are very important to stress hormones in the body.

The change of catecholamine content in blood has a direct impact on the development of vitiligo, clinical observation found that some vitiligo patients are induced by continuous photonic dysfunction; in some patients in stressful situations, the white spots expand and expand to make the disease worse; some vitiligo patients urine examination found that the content of catecholamine metabolites is higher than normal, these phenomena all indicate that catecholamine is related to These phenomena indicate that catecholamines are related to the development of vitiligo.

Catecholamines are one of the central neurotransmitters, whose predecessor is the dopa. Doba is an intermediate derivative generated by oxidation during the metabolism of tyrosine in the body, which is a substrate for both melanin synthesis and the synthesis of the neurotransmitter catecholamines (also called epinephrine and norepinephrine). In other words, the synthesis of melanin and the synthesis of epinephrine both compete with each other for dopa as a raw material for their own production. Under the control and regulation of the central nervous system, the synthesis of epinephrine and norepinephrine and the synthesis and metabolism of melanin are in a dynamic state of balance. Once this balance is disrupted, the synthesis of catecholamines is significantly increased, and dopa will guide the synthesis of adrenaline and norepinephrine, as a result, the synthesis of melanin is inhibited, resulting in pigment loss and vitiligo.