Alopecia Areata Is Associated With MICA and an Extended HLA Haplotype

    March 2004 in “ Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology ”
    Nazila Barahmani, Mariza de Andrade, Joshua P. Slusser, Madeleine Duvic
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    TLDR Certain genes are linked to the risk of developing Alopecia Areata.
    In a study from 2004, researchers investigated the genetic associations of Alopecia Areata (AA), an autoimmune disease targeting hair follicles, with specific alleles in the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region on chromosome 6.p21. They examined polymorphic alleles of 10 microsatellite markers in 10 large multiplex families using polymerase chain reaction and genotyping. The study found an association between the MICA locus and AA with a p-value of 0.012. However, no association was found between the other nine markers and AA in these families. Further analysis in a larger sample of 94 families revealed a strong association between the haplotype MICA*3-DR*6-DQ6 and AA, with a p-value of 0.00093, suggesting a genetic susceptibility linked to this specific haplotype.
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