Journal of Dermatology and Dermatologic Diseases

Vitamin E in Vitiligo: Toward Solving the Mystery

Abstract

Igor V Korobko and Konstantin M Lomonosov

Vitiligo is accompanied by oxidative stress which is likely causative for disease onset. Numerous efforts were undertaken to reveal abnormalities in antioxidant system in vitiligo. Vitamin E is one of the major non-enzymatic components of antioxidant system, and several studies addressed a question of vitamin E deficiency in vitiligo, with controversial conclusions on its presence. Aiming to solve this discrepancy, we analyzed plasma vitamin E level in a cohort of non-segmental vitiligo patients. Although we failed to reveal gross plasma vitamin E level abnormalities, our data suggest that there is subgroup of vitiligo patients with low, close to lower reference value, level of plasma vitamin E, while plasma vitamin E level in remaining patients follows that in general population. While this stratification of vitiligo patients’ needs to be confirmed in large-scale studies, existence of a subgroup of vitiligo patients with “low vitamin E” status might reason inconsistency in previous reports on plasma vitamin E concentration in vitiligo patients. Observed lack of acute vitamin E deficiency in vitiligo patients is in line with reported moderate, if any, effect of oral vitamin E supplementation in complex therapy of vitiligo on extent of repigmentation. At the same time, adjuvant to phototherapy oral vitamin E has beneficial effect in terms of faster response, shorter treatment course and less frequently encountered erythema, likely due to coping with photo-oxidative stress elicited by ultraviolet. Finally, patients from “low vitamin E” group might benefit from vitamin E supplementation through maintaining proper antioxidant system balance thus precluding from oxidative stress-triggered disease recurrence due to lowered vitamin E level.