What are the causes of vitiligo

Vitiligo is a skin disease that is more common among young people. It would be fine if vitiligo appears on the back, wrists and other parts of the body, but if it appears on the face and neck, it will easily affect your appearance. According to medical research, the risk of vitiligo patients developing skin cancer is much higher than that of ordinary people. Vitiligo also seriously affects patients' studies, marriage, employment and other aspects. However, the cause of vitiligo is still unclear.

Causes:

The cause of vitiligo is still not very clear so far. It can be summarized into nine major factors: genetic factors; psychoneurological factors; chemical factors; relative deficiency of tyrosinase and copper ions; infectious factors; traumatic factors, etc. It can be seen that the causes of vitiligo are multifaceted, but in a considerable number of patients, no inducing factors can be found. Our research found that vitiligo patients, regardless of where the disease occurs, are all associated with microcirculation disorders. When we research therapeutic drugs, we focus on improving microcirculation. According to clinical observation, the main causes of this disease are as follows:

1. Genetic theory

Vitiligo can occur in twins and families, indicating that heredity plays an important role in the onset of vitiligo. Studies have shown that vitiligo has incomplete penetrance and there are multiple pathogenic sites on the gene.

2. Autoimmunity theory

Vitiligo can be combined with autoimmune diseases such as thyroid disease, diabetes, chronic adrenal insufficiency, pernicious anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, malignant melanoma, etc. Specific antibodies to various organs can also be detected in the serum, such as anti-thyroid antibodies, anti-gastric parietal cell antibodies, anti-adrenal gland antibodies, anti-parathyroid antibodies, anti-smooth muscle antibodies, anti-melanocyte antibodies, etc.

3. Psychological and neurochemical theory

Mental factors are closely related to the onset of vitiligo. Most patients suffer from mental trauma, excessive tension, depression or frustration during the onset or development of skin lesions. The degeneration of nerve endings in the white spots also supports the neurochemical theory.

4. Melanocyte self-destruction theory

Vitiligo patients can produce antibodies and T lymphocytes in their bodies, indicating that the immune response may lead to the destruction of melanocytes. Toxic melanin precursors synthesized by the cells themselves and certain chemicals that cause skin depigmentation may also have a selective destructive effect on melanocytes.

5. Trace element deficiency theory

The levels of copper or ceruloplasmin in the blood and skin of vitiligo patients are reduced, resulting in reduced tyrosinase activity, thus affecting the metabolism of melanin.

6. Other factors

Trauma, sun exposure and some photosensitive drugs can also induce vitiligo.