The Relationship Between ABO And Rh Blood Groups With Alopecia Areata

Abstract

Introduction: Alopecia areata (AA) is a common non-scaring hair loss disease. Genetic susceptibility and environmental factors can develop the disease. Objectives: We investigated the association between AA and ABO and Rh blood groups. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 200 patients with AA and 200 healthy controls (HCs) between March 2021 and September 2021. Results: The prevalence of blood groups O, A, B, and AB in patients with AA was 30%, 30.5%, 10.5%, and 29%, respectively. A significant difference was detected between the two groups in the frequency of the ABO and ABO*Rh blood groups (p-value < 0.05). Compared to the HCs, the prevalence of the AB and AB+ blood group was higher in AA patients. No significant relationship was detected between sex, BMI, duration of disease, age at onset, severity of alopecia tool (SALT) score, hair loss pattern, and nail involvement with ABO and Rh blood groups (p-value > 0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, the highest difference was related to the AB+ blood group, so compared to HCs, the AB+ blood group frequency was higher in patients with AA. However, more studies with larger sample sizes on different ethnicities should be performed to verify the results of this study.

Association of Vitiligo with ABO/Rh System and its Influence on Thyroid Stimulating Hormone and Vitamin D

“…Nevertheless, our findings were consistent with several previous publications which indicate that statistically there was no significant association between ABO blood groups and vitiligo [13,15,16]. Actually, many dermatological diseases were shown to be linked to blood types and hence it was envisaged that producing antimelanocyte antibodies in vitiligo would be likely triggered by blood type alloantigens [20,33]. Instead, recent studies shed new light on the possibility of contributing to the stress, psychological and genetic factors in such diseases [25,34,35].…”

“…It has been demonstrated that the etiology of vitiligo is complex and multifactorial including; autoimmune (selfdestructive mechanism) as well as genetic, inflammatory and environmental origin [19]. Numerous studies have reported the association between vitiligo and autoimmune disorders such as thyroid disease [1,[20][21][22][23]. Both Graves' disease and Hashimoto's disease have been shown to be correlated with vitiligo incidence, as individuals were more prone to thyroid disturbance [22,24].…”