White Hair Follicles in Alopecia Areata.

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is a common, non-scarring type of patchy or diffuse hair loss with possible remaining or regrowing white hair follicles (WHF) . Aim: to examine white hair follicles within AA patches, evaluating their melanocytic components using several melanocytic markers and to compare that to expression in AA patches without white hairs. Methods: The study was conducted on AA patients attending the dermatology outpatient clinic, Minia University Hospitals. Biopsies were taken from the lesion in each patient, in group 1 the biopsies taken from AA with white hair and group 2 the biopsies taken from the AA without white hair. Processed routinely for transverse sections and stained for Sox 10, CD117, Melan A and HMB-45 melanocytic markers. The Sum of the positive stained cells recorded and average follicular expression was calculated. Result: There is apparent expression of almost all melanocytic markers within AA patches in both groups except for HMB45 which showed minimal values, There is a statistically significant decline of the expression of Sox10 marker in white hair group 1 .