Archives of dermatological research
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Arch. Dermatol. Res. · Dec 2013
Functional polymorphisms in cell death pathway genes FAS and FAS ligand and risk of alopecia areata.
FAS and FAS ligand (FASLG) are important proapoptotic proteins that have a significant function in regulating cell growth and apoptosis and play essential roles in many human autoimmune diseases. Alopecia areata (AA) is hypothesized to be an organ-specific autoimmune disease mediated by T cells to the hair follicles. The concept of an autoimmune mechanism as the basis for AA led us to investigate a possible association between the FAS and FASLG polymorphism with AA susceptibility and disease progression on AA patients in Turkish population. ⋯ No association was observed between AA patients and controls according to genotype and allele distribution of FASLG gene 124 A/G polymorphism (p = 0.1297, p = 453, respectively). In conclusion, we provide evidence that FAS/FASLG polymorphisms may have an effect on the risk of AA in the Turkish population. These findings provide an additional support to a genetic basis for AA development.