Histocompatibility Antigens in Vitiligo: Hamburg Study on 102 Patients from Northern Germany

Abstract

One-hundred and two patients from the area of Hamburg, Germany, with vitiligo (photo-skin types II and III, Fitzpatrick classification, 1979), were examined for a possible association of the human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) complex with this disease. Antisera panels for the detection of 75 HLA antigens were utilized for this HLA typing (WHO Bulletin, 1988). The results were compared with 400 unrelated age- and sex-matched controls with photo-skin types II and III from the same geographical area. Nine of 76 vitiligo patients showed a significantly increased expression of the rare antigen HLA DRW 12 (p_c = 0.000708), and 65/102 patients showed a marginally significant increased frequency of HLA A2 (p_c = 0.04850) compared with controls. For HLA BW60 (40), a significant increase in frequency was shown only in the adult vitiligo group (p_c = 0.0126). A ‘preventive’ antigen for the manifestation of vitiligo has not been identified in this study. A comparative analysis of all published data on the possible association of HLA with vitiligo does not support a definitive linkage to the MHC so far.

Tumor necrosis factor-α and -β genetic polymorphisms as a risk factor in Saudi patients with vitiligo

“…The strength of the association of disease with respect to a particular genotype/allele was expressed with odds ratio interpreted as relative risk (RR) following the method of Woolf as described by Schallreuter et al (1993). RR indicates how many times more frequent a disease is in the positive subjects compared with allele-/genotype-negative subjects.…”

CTLA-4 in autoimmune diseases – a general susceptibility gene to autoimmunity?

“…Several studies have reported associations of vitiligo with certain HLA specificities, but no consistent association with any of the HLA class I or class II alleles has been reported. [144][145][146][147] Recently, the CTLA4 3ЈUTR polymorphism was investigated for association with disease in 74 UK patients with vitiligo 148 (Table 3). The frequency of the 106 bp allele was only increased in a subgroup of vitiligo patients suffering from an additional autoimmune disease, suggesting that vitiligo susceptibility by itself is not influenced by the CTLA4 3ЈUTR polymorphism.…”

Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The Association of Inflammatory Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms

“…jstatsoft.org/v08/i21/paper), and the P-values ≤0.05 were considered as significant. The odd ratio interpreted as relative risk (RR) indicated the strength of the association of disease with respect to a particular allele/genotype and was calculated according to the method of Woolf as outlined by Schallreuter et al [94]. The RR was calculated using the following formula only for those alleles and genotype, which were increased or decreased in IBD patients as compared to normal Saudis.…”