Transcriptomic profiling of vitiligo patients shows polar immune dysregulation in involved and uninvolved skin

Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune skin depigmenting disorder, with a major impact on quality of life. Therapeutic options are still limited, with only one topical JAK inhibitor being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Although vitiligo is primarily regarded as a T_H1/interferon-driven disease, emerging evidence suggests the involvement of additional immune axes, but their relevance to disease pathogenesis remains unclear.

We sought to obtain a global cutaneous transcriptomic profile of lesional and nonlesional vitiligo.

We performed bulk RNA sequencing combined with real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry of skin biopsy samples from 15 lesional and nonlesional vitiligo samples and compared them to 14 matched healthy controls. Results were corroborated by single-cell RNA sequencing.

Robust inflammatory dysregulation was captured not only in lesional but also nonlesional vitiligo skin relative to healthy controls. Lesional samples demonstrated upregulation of T_H1 (OASL, CXCL9, CXCL10), T_H2 (IL4, IL4R, CCL13, CCL17, CCL22, CCL26), and T_H17/22 (IL20, S100A7, S100A8, S100A9, PI3) related markers. Similarly, nonlesional samples demonstrated activation of T_H1 (CXCL9, OASL), T_H2 (IL4R, IL10, CCL13, CCL17, CCL22), and T_H17/22 (PI3, DEFB4A) associated markers. Clinical severity scores (Vitiligo Area Scoring Index and/or Vitiligo Disease Activity Index) significantly and positively correlated with multiple inflammatory mediators (ie, CXCL14, IL25, IL17RC) in lesional and/or nonlesional vitiligo skin. On a single-cell level, IL13 and IFNG expression were primarily found in nonlesional helper T cells and in lesional proliferating T cells, respectively.

Our findings show that immune dysregulation in vitiligo involves immune axes beyond T_H1/Tc1, with particular upregulation of type 2 markers already observed in nonlesional skin, suggesting a role during early lesion formation.