Melanocyte transplantation for the treatment of vitiligo: effects of different surgical techniques

This paper presents the results of a pilot clinical trial study, conducted on 11 patients with stable vitiligo at the vitiligo outpatient clinic of The Unicamp University Hospital, between March 2000 and December 2001. This study was in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board. The patients were concomitantly treated with four different types of surgical techniques in 44 areas randomly chosen. There was a 90-day follow-up period. The following treatments were carried out: only cryotherapeutic treatment (OC); cryotherapy plus melanocyte culture medium (CM); cryotherapy plus transplantation of non-cultured melanocytes and keratinocytes (KM); and cryotherapy plus transplantation of cultured melanocytes (CC). The appearance of repigmentation and its evolution were followed all along the treatments. In the case of OC and CM no repigmentation occurred. Progressive repigmentation was observed over a period of 90 days in the case of KM and CC. In these two groups there was a significant reduction in the achromic areas during this time but no significant difference was found between the two treatments.