Abstract: HONG Wei-song, FU Li-fang, WEI Xiao-dong, QIAN Guo-pei, XU Ai-e. Department of Dermatology, Third People′s Hospital of Hangzhou, Hangzhou 310009, China Corresponding author: XU Ai-e, Email: xuaiehz@msn.com 【Abstract】 Objective To evaluate the relationship between cell seeding density and clinical efficacy of autologous cultured melanocyte transplantation in the treatment of vitiligo. Methods A total of 632 patients with vitiligo were enrolled in this study, and randomly classified into 4 groups to be treated with transplantation of autologous cultured melanocytes at 4 different seeding densities respectively, i.e., （3.0 － 4.9）× 104/cm2 （n = 201）,（5.0 － 7.9） × 104/cm2 （n = 303）, （8.0 － 9.9） × 104/cm2 （n = 82）, （10.0 － 12.0） × 104/cm2 （n = 46）. Epidermal sheets were obtained by suction blister biopsy from the normal skin of the vitiligo patients, and subjected to the isolation and culture of melanocytes. After 2 to 5 passages, the cultured autologous melanocytes were transplanted at different seeding densities to vitiligous lesions, which were abraded previously by ultra-pulsed CO2 laser, of these patients. All the patients were followed for 6 － 12 months. Results At 6 months after the transplantation, 52.85% of these patients achieved more than 90% repigmentation, and 82.28% more than 50% repigmentation, with no differences in the cure rate and response rate between the 4 groups （both P < 0.05）. The percentage of patients obtaining excellent color matching was significantly higher in the group treated with transplantation of melanocytes at a seeding density of （5.0 － 7.9） × 104/cm2 than in the other 3 groups at 6, 12 and 24 months after treatment （all P < 0.05）, and higher in all the 4 groups at 12- and 24-month points compared with the 6-month point （all P < 0.05）, but no statistical difference was observed between the 12- and 24-month point in any of these groups （all P > 0.05）. Conclusions The transplantation of autologous cultured pure melanocytes is effective for the treatment of stable vitiligo with the optimal cell seeding density of melanocytes being （5.0 － 7.9） × 104/cm2, and the color matching appears to improve with time. 【Key words】 Vitiligo; Melanocytes; Cell transplantation; Cell count