[Quantitative ultrastructural study of the epidermis basal layer in the vitiligo patches and in the marginal hyperchromic and normal skin (author's transl)].

To avoid any bias, the ultramicroscopic examination was performed by the morphologist without knowing whether the material examined was from the vitiligo patch or from the marginal hyperpigmented and normal skin. Only at the end of the investigation, he was informed about the code of the material. He had also been informed about the possibility of receiving skin biopsies from a patient without vitiligo, what in fact was done with the inclusion of one case of albinism. Six cases of vitiligo have been studied. The melanocytes usually have not been observed in the vitiligo patches, where a variable number of Langerhans cells were seen. In the melanocytes reached about 17 p. 100 of the cellular population; Langerhans cells were absents. In the marginal normal skin the average proportion of melanocytes was near 10 p. 100 of the cellular population and the Langerhans have been observed only in one case (1.8 p. 100 of the population). Regarding the keratinocytes of the marginal hyperpigmented and normal skin, respectively 75 p. 100 and 59 p. 100 contained melanin; in the vitiligo patches only in one case keratinocytes contained melanin (2.8 p. 100 of the keratinocytes population as an average).