LANGERHANS CELLS IN VITILIGO: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY* .

Journal/Book: THE JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE DERMATOLOGY Vol. 49 No. 4 1967. 1967;

Abstract: This investigation was supported in part by Research Grant B-1755 from the National Institutes of Health United States Public Health Service. Received for publication May 31 1967. Presented at the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of The Society for Investigative Dermatology Atlantic City June 18 1967. * Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation: Section of Dermatology Â‡ Mayo Graduate School of Medicine; University of Minnesota Rochester Minnesota.Â‡Â‡ SUMMARY Langerhans cells demonstrated histochemically by the method for adenosine triphosphatase were studied in skin specimens from involved and corresponding uninvolved areas in 10 patients with vitiligo. Cell counts of isolated epidermal sheets revealed regional and individual variations but were similar for the uninvolved and involved areas of the same patient. The mean count of Langerhans cells was 731/mm² in involved areas and 697/ mm² in uninvolved areas. Studies of vertical seetions showed variations in the intraepidermal distribution of ATPase-positive dendritie cells which appeared to be related to epidermal thickness. The quantitative and morphologic similarities of Langerhans cells in uninvolved and involved skin from patients with vitiligo as well as the lack of any numerical correlation between Langerhans cell and melanocyte populations indicate that the Langerhans cell is not an etiologic factor in this disease and that these two cell lines are distinct and perhaps unrelated. schö

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