Study of human leukocyte antigen-cw in Egyptian patients with vitiligo.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antigens vary considerably in different racial groups, and an analysis of results from several geographical locations suggests that vitiligo appears to be associated with different HLA antigens in different groups. The aim of this work was to assess the association of HLA-Cw with vitiligo in the Egyptian population. Forty unrelated patients with nonsegmental vitiligo and 20 matched controls were selected. A polymerase chain reaction sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP) method was used to determine HLA DNA typing. There was a statistically significant difference in the association of HLA-Cw6 with vitiligo in the 2 studied groups. A comparatively increased number of patients showed HLA-Cw2 and HLA-Cw7 (13.64%). However, there were no statistically significant differences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first molecular study of HLA typing in Egyptian patients with vitiligo. Our findings are in agreement with earlier studies that reported statistically increased frequencies for allele of HLA-Cw6 in Northern Italian, Kuwaiti, Chinese Han, and Saudi populations (45.45%, P<.05).