Study of efficacy and safety of noncultured, extracted follicular outer root sheath cell suspension transplantation in the management of stable vitiligo.

BACKGROUND

Noncultured, extracted follicular outer root sheath suspension (NC-EHF-ORS-CS) is a recently introduced technique for the treatment of stable vitiligo.

OBJECTIVE

To study the clinical efficacy of this technique and to determine the viability and cell composition of the suspension.

METHODS

Twenty-five patients with stable vitiligo were included in this prospective study. Fifty follicles were extracted from occipital scalp and were incubated with trypsin-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid to separate outer root sheath cells. The cell suspension was filtered and centrifuged to obtain a cell pellet, which was resuspended and applied to the dermabraded recipient area. Cell viability of the suspension was assessed using trypan blue staining, and markers of keratinocyte stem cells (CD200) and melanocytes (S100) were evaluated using flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry, respectively.

RESULTS

At 6 months, the mean (±SD) repigmentation was 52 ± 25.1%, and >75% repigmentation was seen in 8/25 (32%) patients. Mean percentage cell viability of the suspension was 80 ± 17.2% with a mean concentration of CD200 + and S100 + cells being 7.91 ± 8.68% and 9.93 ± 1.22% (n = 3), respectively. Recipient site infection was seen in 4 of 25 (16%) patients and a color mismatch in 11 of 25 (44%) patients.

CONCLUSION

NC-EHF-ORS-CS is a useful minimally invasive therapy for vitiligo.