( BETHESDA Md. April 10 2007--In a st...)Scientists Implicate Gene in Vitiligo and Other Autoimmune Diseases,Health

BETHESDA, Md., April 10, 2007--In a study appearing in the March 22 New England Journal of Medicine, scientists supported by the National Institutes of Healths National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) have discovered a connection between a specific gene and the inflammatory skin condition vitiligo, as well as a possible host of autoimmune diseases.

Vitiligo is a chronic condition in which melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. As a result, white patches appear on the skin in different parts of the body. Similar patches also appear on both the mucous membranes (tissues that line the inside of the mouth and nose), and perhaps in the retina (inner layer of the eyeball). The hair that grows on areas affected by vitiligo sometimes turns white.

The researchers began a search for genes involved in vitiligo almost a decade ago with the help of the Vitiligo Society in the United Kingdom. In the beginning we were looking for multiple family members with vitiligo, says Richard Spritz, M.D., director of the Human Medical Genetics Program at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and lead investigator for the study. The researchers sent a questionnaire to members of the society, asking them about their own vitiligo and whether other family members were affected. As part of the questionnaire, they also asked about other autoimmune diseases. What they learned was that vitiligo was very highly associated with a number of other autoimmune diseases, mostly thyroid disease, but also pernicious anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, Addisons disease, and adult-onset autoimmune diabetes.

That finding prompted the researchers to study families with multiple affected members and to look for similarities in genes among those who were affected. By searching the genome, they discovered a gene, NALP1, that was key to
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