Symptoms and Causes of Vitiligo
Vitiligo
Vitiligo is a disorder in which white colored patches appears on the skin. Vitiligo is otherwise called leucoderma means white skin. They may appear on any part of the body. This is actually a pigmentation disorder. The body cells that form pigment are called melanocytes.
Melanocytes produce a pigment called melanin. When these melanocytes get destroyed, it leads to the appearance of white patches on the skin. These white patches may also appear on the retina and mucous membrane seen inside the mouth and nose. Even the hairs developed on the affected area become white. Both male and female are equally susceptible to this disorder and most of the people get this disorder before the age of 40.
Symptoms of Vitiligo
The affected persons may first develop white patches on that part of skin which is exposed to sun. Usually it appears on the arms, hands, face, feet, lips etc. Later the patches may affect the areas around the mouth, navel, rectal areas, genitals, nostrils etc. Some times the de-pigmentation occurs only on a limited area and this type of vitiligo is called focal pattern vitiligo.
In other cases the patches develops only on one side of the body and is called segmental pattern. While in certain other case the patches appears symmetrically on both the sides of the body and this type is called generalized pattern.
Causes of Vitiligo
Vitiligo is supposed to be an autoimmune disorder where the body fails to identify its own tissues and organs. Such people can produce cytokine that is a protein that can alter melanocytes leading to its death. In certain other people melanocytes get destroyed by themselves and thus causing vitiligo.
Vitiligo is a hereditary disorder that can be inherited through families. This is because the vitiligo patients are found to have three genes that make them susceptible to this disease. Families having the history of premature graying of hair are also at the risk of developing this disorder. People having hyperthyroidism, alopecia areata, adrenocortical insufficiency etc are also at the risk of getting vitiligo.
