Dg. Durhampierre et al., NATURAL-KILLER-CELL AND LYMPHOKINE-ACTIVATED KILLER-CELL ACTIVITY AGAINST MELANOCYTES IN VITILIGO, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 33(1), 1995, pp. 26-30
Background: Vitiligo is a common disease of unknown cause. Previous st
udies have shown abnormalities in natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicit
y in patients when NK-sensitive erythroleukemic cell lines were used a
s target cells. Objective: The purpose of this study was to use melano
cytes directly as target cells to determine NK and lymphokine-activate
d killer (LAK) cell cytotoxicity in patients with vitiligo and to dete
rmine whether NK or LAK cells can be implicated in any destructive mec
hanism for melanocyte cytotoxicity in vitro in this disease. Methods:
Twenty-one patients with vitiligo were compared with a control group b
y studying NK cell activity (NKCA) and LAK cell activity (LAKCA) on se
veral target cells. These included K562 cells, neonatal melanocytes, a
nd malignant melanoma cells for NKCA and neonatal melanocytes and mali
gnant melanoma cells for LAKCA. Cytotoxicity was measured with the sta
ndard chromium 51-release assay. Results: No significant differences w
ere found between vitiligo patients and control subjects in NKCA again
st K562 cells or in NKCA and LAKCA against melanocytes. Conclusion: NK
cells and LAK cells are probably not responsible for melanocyte destr
uction in vitiligo.