Original Article

Journal of Investigative Dermatology (1991) 97, 395–404; doi:10.1111/1523-1747.ep12480976

Structural Aberration of the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum and Melanosome Compartmentalization in Long-Term Cultures of Melanocytes from Vitiligo Patients

Raymond E Boissy, Ying-Ying Liu, Estela E Medrano and James J Nordlund

Department ofDermatology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.

Received 13 March 1991; Accepted 19 April 1991.

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Abstract

Long-term cultures of melanocytes were established from 14 subjects with vitiligo and from five normal controls and analyzed ultrastructurally. Cultured melanocytes from 78.6% of the vitiligo patients demonstrated abnormalities that consisted of 1) dilation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), 2) circular RER profiles, and/or 3) membrane bound compartments of melanosomes. Cultured melanocytes from control subject were predominantly normal with only one of the normal cultures demonstrating minimal circular RER profiles. The three unique abnormal structures in cultured vitiligo melanocytes were not always concomitantly expressed and could not be associated with any specific clinical feature of vitiligo. Quantitative analysis of the RER demonstrated that the profiles of dilated RER in cultured vitiligo melanocytes expressed a significant 1.5–2.8-times increase in mean cisternal area over cultured control melanocytes (i.e., 5.41–9.92 mum2 versus 3.53 mum2, respectively). The cisterna of the dilated appeared to originate from the ribosomes, an indication that the floccular material may be translation products. The dilation of RER in melanocytes from the same patient persisted through repeated subculturing for up to 14.75 months. Epidermal melanocytes in biopsied skin from a patient whose cultured melanocytes were aberrant also demonstrated dilated and circular RER profiles. These results demonstrate that melanocytes from most vitiligo patients express an innate defect when cultured. Although this defect dose not appear to be cytotoxic in vitro, this abnormality may be the primary defect that elicits melanocyte destruction in vivo.

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