Transplantation of Autologous Non-Cultured Extracted Hair Follicle Outer Root Sheath Cell Suspension and Mini Punch Graft for Stable Non-Segmental Vitiligo Lesions

Overview

Vitiligo is an acquired pigmentation disorder due to loss of melanocytes characterized by depigmentation macules or patches. One type of this disease is nonsegmental vitiligo (NSV). Until now, there is no satisfactory treatment for vitiligo. Vitiligo therapies are medical therapy include topical and systemic therapy, phototherapy as well as surgery. Surgical treatment is indicated in stable vitiligo, which is not responding to medical treatment. This procedure consists of tissue grafting and cellular transplantation. Mini punch graft (MPG) is the most frequently performed tissue transplantation technique, while cellular transplantation from autologous noncultured extracted hair follicle outer root sheath cell suspension (NCEHFORSCS) containing melanocyte stem cells, is currently a promising option.

Current NSV treatments can be considered suboptimal and leading to decreased patient's quality of life due to the emotional burden of therapy dissatisfaction. When a stable NSV is not responding to medical therapy, surgery may be a useful treatment approach. All surgical techniques in vitiligo treatment share the same principle: transferring autologous melanocytes from a donor to repopulate melanocytes in the depigmented area that lacks a reservoir or fails to activate melanocytes in the outer root sheath (ORS) of hair follicles. MPG as the most frequently performed tissue transplantation technique transferred the epidermal melanocyte to vitiligo lesion, while NCEHFORSCS provides melanocytes with better properties and contains melanocyte stem cells. The advantages of melanocytes from ORS compared to epidermal are the follicular melanocyte:keratinocyte ratio consists of one melanocyte for every five keratinocytes or 1:5 in the hair bulb, melanocytes are more dendritic, have larger melanosomes, and have the potential to produce more melanin pigment. Due to these properties, hair follicles can be a better source of melanocytes than epidermis in the delivery of cellular transplantation-based therapy for vitiligo therapy. Research comparing the effectiveness of the two procedures has never been conducted in Indonesia, even though the incidence of vitiligo is quite high and the success of therapy is still not optimal. So the purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the two procedures in NSV patient.