ABSTRACT
Vitiligo is an acquired skin disorder that selectively destroys melanocytes in epidermis with an unknown etiology. To investigate the exon 1 A49G polymorphism of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 [ctla-4] gene in vitiligo patients. The A49G polymorphism was detected by Po-lymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism [PCR-RFLP] method in 101 patients and 208 normal healthy age/ethnicity matched individuals. The frequencies of heterozygote genotypes in patients and controls were found to be 42 [41.6%] of 101 and 85 [40.9%] of 208, respectively. The frequencies of homozygote A and G genotypes were 49 [48.5%] and 10 [9.9%] in 101 patients, whereas, these frequencies in 208 control individuals were 103 [49.5%] and 20 [9.6%], respectively. There was no significant difference between the genotype [P = 0.98] and allele [P = 0.86] frequencies of A49G polymorphism in patients and normal healthy individuals. Our results indicate that in contrast to several immune mediated disorders, there is no asso-ciation between ctla-4 A49G gene polymorphism and vitiligo