Candidate Gene Analysis Of Alopecia Areata In Jordanian Population Of Arab Descent: A Case-Control Study

Laith N Al-Eitan; Rawan O Al Momani; Khalid K Al Momani; Ahmad M Al Warawrah; Hanan A Aljamal; Mansour A Alghamdi; Alsharif M Muhanna; Firas A Al-Qarqaz

doi:10.2147/TACG.S226664

Candidate Gene Analysis Of Alopecia Areata In Jordanian Population Of Arab Descent: A Case-Control Study

Appl Clin Genet. 2019 Nov 21:12:221-228. doi: 10.2147/TACG.S226664. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Laith N Al-Eitan^{1

2}, Rawan O Al Momani¹, Khalid K Al Momani³, Ahmad M Al Warawrah³, Hanan A Aljamal¹, Mansour A Alghamdi⁴, Alsharif M Muhanna³, Firas A Al-Qarqaz^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
² Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
³ Department of Dermatology, King Hussein Medical Center (KHMC), Jordan Royal Medical Services (RMS), Amman, Jordan.
⁴ College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
⁶ Division of Dermatology, Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdullah University Hospital, Irbid, Jordan.

Abstract

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is a non-cicatricial patchy hair loss on the scalp, face or other parts of the body. AA was found to be responsive to immunosuppressive therapies, a finding that supports an autoimmune basis for the disease. Several genetic studies have shown the significance of immunological factors as key genetic components in AA.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the genetic association of 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within five candidate genes including TAP1, CXCL1, CXCL2, HSPA1B, and TNFα with AA susceptibility in the Jordanian Arab population.

Methods: A case-control genetic association study conducted in 152 patients and 150 healthy individuals was performed using the sequenom MassARRAY system (iPLEX GOLD) to genotype the selected SNPs.

Results: rs1800629 SNP of the TNFα gene was significantly associated with AA in the heterozygous and rare homozygous genotypes (P=0.022 and P=0.0079, respectively) with no linkage of the TAP1, CXCL1, CXCL2 and HSPA1B variants.

Conclusion: This is the first study of its kind among the Jordanian population providing evidence of genetic association of the TNFα with AA susceptibility. Further genetic studies on Arab descent including other variants are required to clarify and strengthen the association of these genes with susceptibility to develop AA.

Keywords: CXCL1; CXCL2; Jordan; TAP1; alopecia areata; genetic association studies; immunological factors.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Research at Jordan University of Science and Technology under grant number (RN: 104/2017).