IMMUNOGENETICS OF AUTOIMMUNE CUTANEOUS DISEASE

Recent evidence has demonstrated that a number of cutaneous diseases of putative autoimmune etiology are associated with statistically significant increased frequencies of specific alleles localized to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on the short arm of chromosome 6. These studies, employing predominantly standard lymphocytotoxic assays, have demonstrated strong HLA associations in pemphigus vulgaris, dermatitis herpetiformis, herpes (pemphigoid) gestationis, linear IgA dermatosis, and the neonatal lupus erythematosus syndrome. In the near future, restriction fragment-length polymorphisms, polymerase chain reactions, site-specific oligonucleotides, and DNA sequencing techniques will undoubtedly advance these fields of study, further detailing the nucleotide sequences associated with specific autoantibody responses.