According to a report in the March issue of Archives of Dermatology, “An
genetic-variation
isolated, inbred Romanian community has a higher than average frequency of the skin disease Vitiligo and other autoimmune diseases, suggesting a genetic variation that may indicate susceptibility to the condition in a broader population.”
Vitiligo is skin disorder in which white colored progressive patches appear on different parts of the body. This happens because of the decrease in the number of Melanocytes (pigment producing cells). 0.38 percent of the whites are affected by Vitiligo and this happens with similar frequency in populations worldwide. Researchers are trying to key out the genes responsible of susceptibility to Vitiligo so that effective treatments can be developed.
The researchers studied 1673 residents of geographically isolated community in Northern Romania between 2001 and 2006, there they identified patients with Vitiligo and collected information on demographic data, genealogies, occurrence of other diseases and family structure. Patients’ relatives were also examined in this research activity.
During this research activity the researchers found 51 patients with Vitiligo. The authors say that “The 2.9 percent frequency of Vitiligo in the study community is 19.3 times its 0.15 percent frequency in the five surrounding villages, 7.5 times that among whites on the island of Bornholm, 5.7 times that among individuals in Calcutta, India and 22.5 times that among Han Chinese in Shaanxi Province, China, the only other populations for which empirically determined prevalence estimates have been published.” Rates of other autoimmune diseases were also increased; these diseases included thyroid disease, adult-onset type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
According this research 36.5 is the average age at which symptoms of Vitiligo first developed this average age is greater than the average age of onset among white individuals i.e. 24.2 years. Analysis indicated that environmental exposure work as a trigger for Vitiligo. The authors wrote that the disease susceptibility appears to involve a main genetic component; actual onset of Vitiligo in genetically susceptible people seems to need exposure to environmental triggers.
The researchers concluded that “While this gene variant is of particular importance in this isolated special population, it likely is also involved in disease susceptibility in the broader white population and, thus, is of broader importance.”
People With Vitiligo