Vaccine-Induced Alopecia Areata: Research Note

Postvaccination alopecia has been reported in several species through autoimmune mechanisms. It may therefore serve as a sentinel for other immune-mediated mechanisms and effects. Young adult female mice in this study did not develop alopecia areata after vaccination with recombinant hepatitis B antigen, but older female mice had a significant increase in the condition after vaccination. Additional experiments with larger sample sizes and controls (diphtheria and tetanus toxoids) suggested that the vaccine-induced alopecia areata noted in this study was actually consistent with normal (not significantly elevated) background levels in this murine model.

Recombinant human hepatitis B vaccine initiating alopecia areata: Testing the hypothesis using the C3H/HeJ mouse model. Sundberg JP, Silva KA, Zhang W, et al. VET DERMATOL 20:99-104, 2009.