Role of Vitamin D in Vitiligo

Vitiligo is a long-term skin condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment. The patches of skin affected become white and usually have sharp margins. Vitamin D compounds might limit the melanocyte loss in vitiligo by counteracting the local immune process in the skin oxidative stress programmed cell death and aberrant calcium fluxes and by photoprotecting the epidermal melanin unit. In addition vitamin D may stimulate the differentiation of immature melanocyte precursors and regulate melanocyte development and melanogenesis.