Genetics plays a major role in shaping the immune responses in both physiological and pathological states such as psoriasis, alopecia areata, and other immune-mediated dermatological conditions. The genes encoding the elements of the immune system and its regulators are among the most polymorphous loci in the genome. Subtle variations in these genes can thus alter the balanced defensive responses of the immune system and make an individual liable to diseases and environmental triggers. Immunogenetics deals with finding the precise set of liability genes involved in the pathogenesis of specific complex diseases. In this chapter, we will briefly discuss the basic principles of genetic polymorphisms, the methods used in scanning these polymorphisms, and the strategies employed to find the role of these polymorphisms in complex diseases.
Keywords: Copy number variation; Gene polymorphisms; Human leukocyte antigen; Immunogenetics; Insertion-deletion; Single nucleotide polymorphism; Variable number of tandem repeat.
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