Immunohistochemical Outcomes of NB-UVB in Non-Segmental Vitiligo: A Case-Control Study

Background: Melanocytorrhagy is considered as one of the theories for the pathogenesis of vitiligo. NB-UVB being the 1st line phototherapeutic modality, could mediate its effica-cy through immunohistochemical changes in the expression of adhesion molecules. Aim of Study: To study the outcome of Narrow Band UVB on Melan A, as a melanosomal protein, E-cadherin as a rep-resentative of adhesion molecules, as well as integrin αvβ in non-segmental vitiligo. Patients and Methods: Twelve vitiligo patients and 12 controls were included in this study. The vitiligo patients were subjected to NB-UVB exposure and skin biopsy taking (le-sional, perilesional and non-lesional) was performed at base line and after 36 NB-UVB sessions. VASI and VIDA scores were conducted before and after treatment, for clinical scoring. All biopsies from patients and controls were stained immu-nohistochemically by anti-E-cadherin antibody, anti-. integrin αvβ and Melan-A. Results: Melan-A expression was significantly lower in all sections in cases compared to controls. Melan-A expression increased significantly in lesional sections after NB-UVB ex-posure. Perilesional expression of E-cadherin increased after treatment but without significance. Conclusion: Melan-A expression can be considered a strong indicator for NB-UVB-induced repigmentation. The in-crease of perilesional E-cadherin expression may account for stabilization of repigmentation, significantly detected by Mel-an-A expression.