Why Vitiligo can be Caused by Inflammation

The vitiligo is a primary pigmentation loss disease, while the inflammation caused by the white spots are secondary pigmentation loss. It is obvious that there is a clear difference between the two.

However, in clinical practice, some patients suffer from vitiligo or accelerate the development of vitiligo after a cold, fever or sore throat. There are also some patients who develop vitiligo after viral infections and sometimes on the normal skin between the lesions. This is mainly because the inflammation causes local nerve cell damage in the patient's body or leads to stress response in the body, triggering local or systemic immune or endocrine dysfunction in the body, which eventually induces vitiligo. In addition, there are some patients suffering from eczema, urticaria and other allergic skin diseases, appear vitiligo is mainly because of immune dysfunction.

The causes of inflammatory vitiligo are as follows:

1. Some inflammatory skin reactions induce the production of anti-melanocyte antibodies, causing damage or loss of a large number of normal melanocytes in the epidermis.

2. The inflammation leads to liquefied degeneration of basal cells, which in turn leads to impaired melanocyte function.

3. The skin of progressive vitiligo patients is locally inflamed due to external harmful stimuli, and various bacteria, viruses and fungi can release a variety of inflammatory mediators and cytokines to cause damage to melanocytes.

4. Some chronic inflammation leads to skin surface keratinization, epidermal thickening, poor contact between melanocytes and keratin-forming cells, blocked transport and degradation of melanosomes, and hypofunction or death of melanocytes.