Major histocompatibility complex class I-related chain A and macrophage migration inhibitory factor gene polymorphisms in a Turkish patient population with vitiligo

Background: Autoimmunity has been implicated in the etiopathogenesis of vitiligo. Aim: We sought to determine whether polymorphisms in the major histocompatibility complex class I-related chain A (MICA) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) genes may have a role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Materials and Methods: We conducted a study including 100 patients with vitiligo and age- and sex-matched 172 control subjects to examine the role of single-nucleotide polymorphisms of MICA gene rs1051792 and MIF genes rs755622 and rs2096525 as risk factors for vitiligo. Real-time PCR combined with the melting curve analysis using fluorescence-labeled hybridization probes was used for genotyping analyses. Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis, and chi-square (χ2) tests as well as multivariate logistic regression adjusted for age and gender were used for statistical evaluation. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype frequencies were also performed. Results: No significant association was observed between the variant alleles of studied genes and vitiligo. Haplotype analysis demonstrated that there was a strong LD between rs755622 and rs2096525 loci of MIF gene (D′ = 0.92, r2 = 0.827). However, haplotype frequencies in patients were similar to those in controls. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that the polymorphic variants of MIF rs755622, MIF rs2096525, and MICA rs1051792 genes do not play a critical role in the etiopathogenesis of vitiligo.