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Genetics

  • Chapter
Vitiligo

Core Messages

  • Technological and theoretical advances enabled by the human genome project have led to efforts to map and identify specific genes involved in vitiligo susceptibility.

  • Specific approaches include the Candidate Gene Approach, the Genome-Wide Approach, and the Gene Expression Approach, each offering specific advantages and disadvantages.

  • Generalized vitiligo is epidemiologically associated with a number of autoimmune diseases. This epidemiologic association has a genetic basis, at least in part, as vitiligo patients' close relatives have elevated risk of both vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases, even if those relatives don't have vitiligo.

  • Several generalized vitiligo susceptibility genes have now been identified, including loci in the MHC, PTPN22, and NALP1. The status of other genes, whose involvement has been suggested, remains uncertain.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants AR45584, AI46374 and AR056292 from the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Human Medical Genetics Program, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado, USA

    Richard Spritz

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  1. Richard Spritz
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Correspondence to Richard Spritz .

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  1. Istituto Dermatologico San Gallicano, via Elio Chianesi 53, Roma, 00144, Italy

    Mauro Picardo

  2. Service de Dermatologie De Dermatologie Pédiatrique, Centre de référence des maladies rares de la Peau Hôpital Saint-André, 1 rue Jean Burguet, Bordeaux, 33000, France

    Alain Taïeb

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Spritz, R. (2010). Genetics. In: Picardo, M., Taïeb, A. (eds) Vitiligo. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69361-1_22

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