The possible site of trauma in leucodermic/vitiligenous skin

Abstract

The histological, histochemical and ultrastructural changes in leucodermic skins are compared with those of normal human skins in order to find out if the former represents a traumatized skin. There were no significant differences in the histochemical features between the normal and leucodermic human skins, Ultrastructural studies however revealed that the melanocytes in the affected areas were undergoing degenerative changes such as loss of melanosomes, structural alterations in melanosomes and the presence of wide intracellular spaces. It is, therefore, suggested that in leucoderma, there occurs cellular traumatization rather than traumatisation at the organ level.