Association of CYP2C9 Genetic Variants with Vitiligo

BACKGROUND Vitiligo is a depigmenting skin disorder in which genetic factors play an important role. OBJECTIVE To examine the association of CYP2C9 (*) 1/(*) 2/(*) 3 gene polymorphism with vitiligo. METHODS In this case controlled study, 95 Saudi patients with vitiligo (50 men and 45 women), with a mean age of 27.3 years, were analyzed. Patients were compared to 86 healthy controls from the same locality (76 men and 10 women), with a mean age of 20.1 years. In all participants, DNA was extracted and processed for characterization of 2C9 (*) 1/(*) 2/(*) 3 gene variants using real time-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Vitiligo patients have a significantly higher CYP2C9 (*) 3 allele carriage rate compared to controls (32.7% versus 4.7%, p=0.00, odds ratio=9.9, 95% confidence interval=3.3~29.6). On the other hand, frequencies of CYP2C9 (*) 2 genotypes and alleles did not show any significant difference between vitiligo cases and controls. When the frequencies of CYP2C9 genotypes were compared among subgroups of age, gender, family history, and disease patterns, the cases with positive consanguinity had significantly higher frequencies of homozygous genotypes than others (p=0.029). CONCLUSION CYP2C9 (*) 3 allele carriage is probably associated with vitiligo susceptibility.