A remarkable discovery by scientists and physicians led by a man and wife team from the universities of Bradford and Hamburg could permit skin pigmentation to be changed naturally, bringing relief to thousands of sufferers of a disfiguring skin disease.
The Bradford team, led by Professor John Wood of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Professor Karin Schallreuter's group from Eppendorf Medical School, Hamburg, have identified the natural co-enzyme tetrahydrobiopterin as the controlling factor in pigmentation.
This basic research, published in Science, has led to the development of a product that can successfully repigment patients with the previously incurable skin disease, vitiligo.
The disease strips the skin of pigment, leaving blotchy marks that are especially disfiguring to black skin. It affects 1 in 200 of the world's population. Studies show that sufferers are 180 times more likely to develop the dangerous skin cancer, melanoma.
The Schallreuter-Wood team has developed a patented cream, Pseudocatalase, which has so far achieved a 90 per cent success rate on affected faces and hands. It seems particularly effective in treating children with active vitiligo.
Their breakthrough was hailed as light in the darkness by Dr Weite Westerhof, head of the Pigmentary Disorder Centre at the University of Amsterdam, in his review of the treatment in the May issue of the journal Dermatology.