Faculty Bibliography

The prevalence of antibodies to melanocytes was determined by an immunofluorescence complement fixation technique in 294 patients with vitiligo, other pigmentary disorders, and unrelated dermatoses. Antimelanocyte antibodies were present in the sera of five (29%) of 17 patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis. Only two of the five patients with antibodies had vitiligo. No antibodies to melanocytes were found in the sera of 31 patients with common vitiligo or of 38 patients with vitiligo associated with autoimmune diseases or melanoma. Nor were antibodies to melanocytes found in 129 patients with other diseases of pigment-producing cells or in a control group of 79 patients with nonpigmentary dermatoses. These results suggest that complement fixing antibodies to melanocytes are associated wih chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis but are not involved in the pathogenesis of common vitiligo

Previous reports documented the fact that some patients with mucocutaneous candidiasis and vitiligo have a complement-fixing anti-pigment-cell factor in their serum. We examined sera from seven patients with mucocutaneous candidiasis without vitiligo. Three of the seven sera contained the anti-pigment-cell factor. We suggest that these anti-pigment-cell factors, which are most probably antibodies, are not cytotoxic for pigment cells and, thus, not the cause of vitiligo. The association of vitiligo and anti-pigment-cell factors with the syndrome of mucocutaneous candidiasis implicates the immune system are a causal factor of vitiligo