Auto Immune Disease
Before accusing immune disorder for Vitiligo let us first understand what immune is?What is the immune system?
The immune system is the body's means of protection against microorganisms and other "foreign" substances. It is composed of two major parts. One component, B lymphocytes, produces antibodies, proteins that attack "foreign" substances and cause them to be removed from the body; this is sometimes called the humoral immune system. The other component consists of special white blood cells called T lymphocytes, which can attack "foreign" substances directly; this is sometimes called the cellular immune system.
What are autoimmune disorders?
An autoimmune disorder is any of a number of conditions in which a person's immune system reacts against the body's own organs or tissues, and the person's immune system produces antibodies, to them an autoimmune disorder is NOT an "immune deficiency”. Sometimes the immune system will cease to recognize one or more of the body's normal constituents as "self" and will create auto antibodies - antibodies that attack its own cells, tissues, and/or organs. This causes inflammation and damage and it leads to autoimmune disorders.
The cause of autoimmune diseases is unknown, but it appears that there is an inherited predisposition to develop autoimmune disease in many cases. In a few types of autoimmune disease (such as rheumatic fever), a bacteria or virus triggers an immune response, and the antibodies or T-cells attack normal cells because they have some part of their structure that resembles a part of the structure of the infecting microorganism.
Autoimmune disorders fall into two general types: those that damage many organs (systemic autoimmune diseases) and those where only a single organ or tissue is directly damaged by the autoimmune process (localized). Scientists do not know the reason for the association between Vitiligo and these autoimmune diseases. However, most people with Vitiligo have no other autoimmune disease.
Vitiligo is more common in people with certain autoimmune diseases (diseases in which a person's immune system reacts against the body's own organs or tissues). Autoimmune diseases that are associated with Vitiligo include: hyperthyroidism (over activity of the thyroid gland), adrenocortical insufficiency (the adrenal gland does not produce enough of the hormone corticosteroid), alopecia areata (patches of baldness), and pernicious anemia (a low level of red blood cells caused by the failure of the body to absorb vitamin B12).
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