Excellent repigmentation was observed in the treatment of refractory vitiligo with autologous cultured epithelium grafting: a real-world retrospective cohort study

Surgical interventions are mainstream therapies for refractory vitiligo that are resistant to conventional approaches. This clinical trial is a single center retrospective cohort study. 726 vitiligo patients treated with ACEG were collected from January 2015 to June 2019 in China. The patient characteristics such as gender, age, clinical type, lesion sites, course of the disease, and disease stable period were recorded. In 2118 pieces of skin lesions from 726 patients received ACEG, the total effective rate was 82.81% (1754/2118) ACEG can increase the number of melanocytes and KRT6C+ keratinocytes in skin lesions, thereby restoring a skin microenvironment suitable for melanocyte survival. ACEG is a promising therapeutic agent for refractory vitiligo. Age, clinical type, lesion site, and lesion stable period before surgery have significant impacts on repigmentation in ACEG. ACEG can increase the number of melanocytes, cytokine secretion keratinocyte and KRT6C+ keratinocytes in skin lesions, thereby restoring a skin microenvironment suitable for melanocyte survival.