Vitiligo skin disorder could yield clues in fight against melanoma

Kalnicky, a registered nurse at Loyola, has provided skin cell samples for Le Poole's research. "It would be really nice if there was a way to stop vitiligo," Kalnicky said.

Steroid creams return some color to affected skin. But this treatment also thins the skin, and can cause streaks or lines. Bright lights, similar to tanning booths, also can return color, but can cause sunburns and other side effects. Skin grafts transfer skin from unaffected areas to the white patches, but can be painful and expensive, Peterson said.

None of the existing treatments prevent vitiligo from progressing. But the approach Le Poole is studying potentially could stop vitiligo in its tracks.

In people who are susceptible to vitiligo, an injury to the skin, such as sunburn, can trigger pigment cells to generate stress proteins. Immune cells absorb these proteins and, in turn, signal killer T cells to destroy pigment cells.

Le Poole hopes to throw a wrench into this overactive immune response. In collaboration with Assay Designs, Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mi., she is developing blockers that would stop immune cells from absorbing stress hormones and triggering the immune response.

"An active immune response can be bad for vitiligo patients, but good for melanoma patients," Le Poole said. "We hope to be able to adjust the immune system in ways that would benefit both groups of patients."

Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, Loyola University Health System is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb hospital campus and 22 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. The medical center campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. The heart of the medical center campus, Loyola University Hospital, is a 570-licensed bed facility. It houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald® Children's Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center. Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as the LUC Stritch School of Medicine, the LUC Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Health & Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb campus in Melrose Park includes the 250-bed community hospital, the Gottlieb Health & Fitness Center and the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Care Center.