Expression And Significance Of Sox10 And Nestin In Hair Follicles Of Vitiligo

Background and Objective Vitiligo is an acquired and common depigmentary disorder characterized by white areas on the skin due to loss of functional melanocytes. However, patients with vitiligo can experience a high degree of social functional impairment and psychiatric disorders. The etiology of vitiligo is unclear. To find out the pathogenesis of vitiligo, two aspects should be proved between depigmentation mechanism and repigmentation mechanism. In recent years, most of the focus in vitiligo is on the former, which also has made a big progress. But Compared to depigmentation mechanism, repigmentation mechanism which equally important is seldom reported. The importance of proving repigmentation mechanism should be talked about repigmentation patterns. In clinical observation, we classify the repigmentation into four types: perifollicular; marginal; diffuse; mixed configuration. The perifollicular pattern itself reminding melanocytes come from hair follicles. In recent years, studies showed the melanocytes of perifollicular repigmentation were from melanocyte reservoirin follicle bugle, and epidermal neural crest stem cells(EPI-NCSCs) in follicle bugle could immigrate into other tissues and be differentiated into melanocytes. It can express Sox10, Nestin, Bmi-1, et al. It is usually at the stage of primitive undifferentiated, having the ability of self-renewal. When changing the condition, it can be divided into melanocytes. So the mechanism of perifollicular repigmentation in vitiligo may be caused by immigration and differentiation of epidermal neural crest stem cells. Based on this, we propose the hypothesis. To confirm the hypothesis we first need to confirm the presence of EPI- NCSCs in the bugle area of the hair follicle. This issue has not been reported at home and abroad. Traditional skin biopsy locating hair follicle bugle and identificating of neural crest stem cells, it needs serial section, but is difficult to exhibit the hair follicles. We will separate a single hair follicles as the research object, and use immunohistochemical method to detect Sox10 and Nestin in the expression of human follicles, to preliminary confirm the the existence of EPI-NCSCs in the vitiligo hair follicles.Materials and Methods 1. The source of the materials: Specimens were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University abandoned scalp tissue in plastic surgery, neurosurgery operation or dermatologist operation or pathology from vitiligo patients. Vitiligo lesions are treated without local external use at least one month. 2. Groups: There will be two groups to collect the hair follicles, namely no pigment barrier skin disease of normal hair follicle group(control group); vitiligo skin hair follicle group(experimental group). 3. Methods: Neutral protease digestion(Dispase II) method is used to separate human hair follicles. Then we use HE staining to see the hair follicle structure, and immunohistochemical methods to detect Sox10 and Nestin in the expression of hair follicles in each group. 4. Statistical analyses: The data was analyzed by SPSS 17.0 statistical software.P<0.05 was statistically significant.Results 1. Under the microscope, hair follicles were structured by the hair shaft, outer root sheath, inner root sheath, dermal papilla, bulb and matrix, etc. The bugle zone is bouffant continuating to outer root sheath. These cells are close and consistent. The nucleus forms are big though different with the surrounding cells. 2. Sox10 and Nestin in the control group and experimental group both have positive expression. Positive Sox10 is staining in stem cell nucleus and the hair follicle bugle zone. Nestin positive is staining in stem cell cytoplasm. 3. The number of cells has no obvious difference in Sox10 and Nestin between the control group and experimental group(P>0.05).Conclusions 1. Expression of Sox10 and Nestin are positive existing in the hair follicle of vitiligo skin lesions. It preliminary confirms the existence of epidermal neural crest stem cells in the vitiligo hair follicles. 2. Compared with traditional skin biopsy, separation of a single hair follicle is more likely to confirm the hair follicle bulge zone and the neural crest stem cells.