A study of the lesion of vitiligo.

Depigmented skin of vitiligo patients was found not to differ significantly from normally pigmented skin with regard to cutaneous sensation, insensible perspiration and sweat gland secretion in response to intradermally injected acetylcholine. Epidermodermal trauma resulted in depigmentation of the pigmented skin of vitiligo patients in a greater proportion of instances than in the normally pigmented skin of healthy subjects. Epidermal trauma alone seemed incapable of producing depigmentation in the pigmented skin of vitiligo patients. There was no appreciable difference in reactivity to cashew nut oil, a potent contactant, between vitiliginous skin and pigmented skin at a distant site in the same patient. The results of full- and split-thickness exchange-transplant studies are discussed. Histological sections from the border of some early vitiligo lesions showed tiny "vesicles" containing inflammatory cells at the dermoepidermal border.