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Washington: Eye colour can tell whether you're at
risk of serious skin conditions. The blue eyed are less likely to
have vitiligo, while the brown eyed may have lower risk of
melanoma, says a new study.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease in which pigment loss
results in irregular white patches of skin and hair. Melanoma is
the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.
The study, led by the University of Colorado School of Medicine (UCSM),
looked at almost 3,000 people with vitiligo of Non-Hispanic
European ancestry, identifying 13 new genes predisposed to
vitiligo, the journal Nature Genetics reports.
"Genetically, in some ways vitiligo and melanoma are polar
opposites. Some of the same genetic variations that make one more
likely to have vitiligo make one less likely to have melanoma, and
vice-versa," said Richard Spritz, director of the Human Medical
Genetics and Genomics Program at the UCSM.
"Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease, in which a person's immune
system attacks their normal pigment cells. We think that vitiligo
represents overactivity of a normal process by which one's immune
system searches out and destroys early cancerous melanoma cells,"
added Spritz, according to a Colorado statement.
People with vitiligo are at higher risk of various other
autoimmune diseases, such as thyroid disease, type 1 diabetes,
rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Their kin are also at higher risk
for these same diseases, even if they don't have vitiligo.
Spritz said this means there must be some genes that push towards
these autoimmune diseases in general, while other genes and
environmental triggers determine which autoimmune disease occurs
and when.
So, as scientists learn about the genetics of vitiligo, they are
also learning about the genetics of these other autoimmune
diseases.
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