October 2003
Lead Stories

Bradford is World Focus for Skin Condition

Vitiligo can be a debilitating disease, leaving sufferers isolated, depressed and sometimes suicidal.

But a new clinic, which has just launched in the University, is aiming to help patients from around the world.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Allan Irving Hillary with Professor Karin U Schallreuter at the opening ceremony.

Around one in 200 people across the globe suffer from the disease where the skin pales dramatically and loses all its natural colour.

The University's new Institute of Pigmentary Disorders, based in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, is in association with the University of Greifswald in Germany and headed by Professor Karin U Schallreuter.

She said: "There is no specialist institute for vitiligo sufferers in the UK so this is a first. These patients are rarely taken seriously and their disease is regarded as purely cosmetic.

"Many doctors will tell them that they should not go in the sun and that they will simply have to learn to live with it."

The new Institute of Pigmentary Disorders treats patients using a special cream which replaces the missing enzyme in the skin. The majority of patients improve dramatically.

There is no cure for the disease and it is still not known what triggers it, although it is known that sufferers are not born with vitiligo.

Karin explained that vitiligo is caused by the build-up of an oxygen-related molecule (hydrogen peroxide) in the skin. Sufferers are unable to fight the development of this molecule due to a shortage of a functioning enzyme in the skin.

The Institute treats patients using a special cream which replaces the missing enzyme in the skin. The majority of patients improve dramatically. The Institute expects to see each year about 600 patients from all over the world to monitor their progress.

Karin explained: "Many patients do become isolated, this is true. Many people look at them in the street and do not really know what the condition is. Some people think that it is contagious, which of course it is not."

She said that patients from India, where the disease affects almost one in ten people, suffered more than many. Affected individuals can literally be treated like lepers, as the white spots which are associated with leprosy are not very dissimilar to those found on vitiligo patients.

Late this summer the Department of Biomedical Sciences hosted the first International Symposium on Cutaneous Biology. This involves the study of cellular and molecular biology of the human skin.

During the two-day event, Karin said international experts from as far as the United States had been taken by the charms of the city.

Scientists visited the Bronte Country and enjoyed meals in local restaurants.

Karin said: "They were all convinced that Bradford was a good place to hold a symposium!"

It is now hoped that the event will be held annually as experts continue to search for better understanding and treatments, inevitably leading to a cure for diseases such as vitiligo.

20 October 2003

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