S100B: Correlation with Active Vitiligo Depigmentation

Vitiligo, the most common depigmenting disorder, is caused by immune destruction of melanocytes by cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells. One weakness in vitiligo management is the lack of an assessment method for active depigmentation. Beginning with reports about increased S100B levels in different inflammatory and tissue damage processes, Speeckaert et al. explored correlations between the S100B dynamics and vitiligo activity, identifying high circulating S100B levels in patients with active depigmentation which were strongly correlated with the extent of affected skin surface. These authors have proposed S100B as a potential disease activity marker in vitiligo.