Discovery of resident memory T cells in inflammatory vitiligo: A case report

The purpose of this report was to describe resident memory cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8) + T cells may contribute to the progression of inflammatory vitiligo.

A 32-year-old male has a stable vitiligo for 1 year, then some patches present inflammatory erythema. Two years later, the inflammatory patches enlarged and joined together, and the remaining 2 common patches shows repigmentation and no change respectively. Both CD69 + CD8 + T cells and CD103 + CD8 + T cells showed marked increase in inflammatory vitiligo than common vitiligo.

Histological findings show that the numbers of lymphocytes are increased in inflammatory vitiligo than common vitiligo. Immunofluorescence staining show that the numbers of CD69 + CD8 + T cells demonstrated a marked increase in inflammatory vitiligo than common vitiligo.

Without any intervention.

The previous upper 2 patches on the abdomen with erythematous rim were enlarged and joined together. However the lowest lesion with uninflamed common rim on the abdomen remained static, the one on the right groin showed spot-like repigmentation.

This case report demonstrates that resident memory CD8 + T cells may contribute to the progression of inflammatory vitiligo.