I've been doing some random vitilgo research online and I came upon a method of repigmentation that I haven't seen discussed on the site. As the title gave away, I am talking about a type of surgery where melanocytes are transplanted onto depigmentated areas.
What is it?
From what I gathered; It starts with basically taking a graft of your "normal" pigmented skin from the gluteal region (the area around and consisting of the butt). Secondly, the melanocytes (the cells that produce melanin (your natural pigment)) from this graft are separated from this layer of skin and expanded (this happens externally in a petri dish environment). Lastly, the vitiligo affected area that is being treated is essentially sanded down and has the expanded melanocytes applied to it.
Post-operational results?
I haven't found any recent or concrete results posted. But from the ones I saw, patient success (meaning complete repigmentation) was present anywhere from 75% to 95%, but doesn't necessarily always last.
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All information aside, I made this post to find people who know about this surgery being performed on someone. Maybe yourself? Maybe a friend? Perhaps you have it scheduled next week?
Thanks in advance for any and all contributors. :D
If I made any errors, please don't hesitate to correct any informations in a post or PM me and I'll credit you.
Replies
@Chris J which area do you want to repigment ? are those spots old or not ? 'cause as i said below, it's only second-line 'treatment' and there's other options u can try before, like uvb+protopic for example (which is the gold standard treatment nowadays ...) ... it can work well on young spots (and also on area with still dark hair in it), and on areas like face, neck, trunc ... a bit less on arms and legs ... areas like hands and feets generally show very moderate response unfortunately. hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions.
@XvitiX Skin graft and melanocite transplant is two different treatment ...skin grafting is not recommended any more it helps only small stable spots and a lot pain for donor skin , Melanocyte transplant now a days is easier as Julien say they even take it from hair folicles and multiplay it at lab ..B.T.Way MKTP is melanocye and certanocite transplant ..I know ppl who have segmental vit got good result ..I have got some result my self .
@ Chris I have tried Protopic before it didn`t help and I dont like the burning feeling after beer ...You are right I should have used some imuno suppresant cream after my repig .
I actually just had this procedure done 2 weeks ago at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit with Dr. Mulekar. A this point it is too early to tell if it worked, but I am hopeful. The areas remain pink which I hear is good, but it will take a few more weeks to see if I need any phototherapy to help induce repigmentation. I have segmental vitiligo and all the hairs within the patches turned white which means the only way for me to regain any color is through this treatment. It is important for you to understand what type of vitiligo you have in order to seek the right treatment options.
MKTP is not scam ...It Works on stable vitiligo ...I have tried it my self it help me on few stable spots ..no scar on vit spot after treatment .
I do not say it does not work, this is exactly what I wrote:
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The patients whose viti is stable for two or more years are accepted. This process only removes the dead skin layer (or thinnes the skin layer) to enable UV application to work better. It is the UV application that leads to some repigmentation, not the melanocyte transfer.
By the way, there is no need for malanocyte transfer, your melanocytes are not dead, they are alive and there. They are a sort of paralized (one of the most probable theory). "
I myself once tried sandpaper and UV in someone and we saw some pigments afterwords. This is probly due to problems of skin replenishing.
@ MR 18 my repig starts after 3 weeks but I have been to deadsea to acclerate the prosses...the spots which were stable holds the repig but majority fade away slowly after 8 month.
@ Xvitix you are right melanopcytes are not dead they are just dormant ..that is why we repig after some uv treatments ....No body knows why the pigment doesn`t come to top surface or why the melanocyte stop producing pigment.
We hope the New protine treatment help us all.
Hi !
@XvitiX from what I’ve read and understand, I don’t think it’s a scam, even if not a miracle as well … in some vitiligo spots, most scholars think all melanocytes are most probably dead and they definitely disappeared, that’s why melanocyte transplant is needed and can have some interests for those areas … When they remove skin (and not only the dead skin layer) on donor site, they of course take melanocytes as well, ‘cause melanocytes are generally located between the epidermis and dermis, so they can be removed with the procedures they use (there is also other procedures in which they take the melanocytes directly from hair follicles on your scalp) … then UVB helps to improve the repigmentation (higher repig rate) by stimulating the melanocytes that have been grafted (if there was no melanocytes anymore to stimulate, then the UVB would have been useless) … if they have some success with it on areas that didn’t respond to first line treatments like UVB+protopic for example, it clearly shows that they DO transplant melanocytes, and it also show that those ‘new’ melanocytes were essential to repigment
@Bamsegutt why don’t you use protopic to keep the repig ? u could use it daily for some weeks or months to help the repig process (once the area fully healed of course) and, furthermore, u could use it on maintenance scheme (2-3 applications per week with some break periods), it seems to be really efficient to keep the repig where the vitiligo is still active
Julien, I do treat viti, and know dynamics very well (maybe hard to believe). You are talking about sking transplantation. Yes if that is done, it would work to some extent (and only for some time for sure), but it is an useless attempt. The money involving with it outrageous too. I would think that anybody doing that and the one let them do on himself must have lost his mind. For pigment, skin transplantation??? Believe me there are free ways to bring pigment back but if there is no treatment, that means you will have hard time keeping that. I will post my monthly follow up picture on one of my patients tomorrow.
The term grafting is used for sand papering, more technical term...
In my understanding of the dynamics, pigments returns and stays there and there is no need for any cream like protopic.
Hi Chris, I had the transplate procedure done 8 years ago. I was one of the first person in Seattle to have it done by the person that invented the procedure. It is a process that I would not recommend unless absolutely the last option. Many transplated area is required and phototherapy is required to induce repigmentation. The draw back is the transplanted areas leave scars.
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