Background: Promoter polymorphisms of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor gene are associated with increased production of macrophage migration inhibitory factor. Elevated levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor have been observed in the sera of patients with pemphigus vulgaris. More than this, macrophage migration inhibitory factor promoter gene polymorphism has been found to confer increased risk of susceptibility to chronic inflammatory diseases.
Objective: We investigated whether there is an association between promoter polymorphism of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor gene and pemphigus vulgaris.
Methods: One hundred and six patients with pemphigus vulgaris, and a control panel of one hundred healthy volunteers were genotyped for a single nucleotide polymorphism identified in the 5'-flanking region at the position -173 of the gene, using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length analysis.
Results: We found a notably high prevalence of C/C genotype in our nation but no significant difference was observed between patients and controls.
Conclusion: The result of this study using a large and well documented trial of patients showed that macrophage migration inhibitory factor -173G-C polymorphism is not associated with pemphigus vulgaris; but as the role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in the inflammatory process has not been delineated in detail and the prevalence of C/C genotype is notably higher in our nation, this finding merits more consideration.
© 2012 The Authors. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology © 2012 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.