Is there any relationship between hepatitis C virus and vitiligo?
OBJECTIVE
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotropic and lymphotropic virus. This agent can promote development of a panel of autoimmune diseases. The relationship between HCV infection and vitiligo, in which autoimmune mechanisms are believed to play a role is not yet elucidated. In this study we investigated HCV seropositivity in vitiligo patients and compared this with non-vitiligo population.


METHODS
A total of 102 consecutive patients with vitiligo were included in the study (47 male, 55 female, mean age: 36.8 +/- 16.9 years, range: 5-75). Control population was 670 age and sex matched healthy blood donors (406 male, 264 female, mean age: 32.8 +/- 11.3 years, range: 20-58). Third generation enzyme immunoassay was used for serum anti-HCV determination. When positive, qualitative confirmation was performed by HCV-RNA determination using RT-PCR.


RESULTS
Anti-HCV antibody was detected only in 1 patient and confirmed by RT-PCR test. This patient was a 6-year-old girl with a non-segmental form of vitiligo, which is more frequently associated with autoimmune disorders, hence the incidence of HCV seropositivity found as 0.98%. There was no statistically significant difference between this figure and 0.6% prevalence in healthy blood donors.


CONCLUSIONS
Seroprevalence of HCV in vitiligo patients is not different from that of a control group in Turkey, and HCV infection may not be involved in the pathogenesis of vitiligo despite case reports showing co-existence of these 2 diseases.
Akbayir
Nihat
N
Department of Gastroenterology, SiSli Etfal Education and Research Hospital, Turkey. akbayirn@hotmail.com
Gökdemir
Gonca
G
Mansur
Tülin
T
Sökmen
Mehmet
M
Gündüz
Sevil
S
Alkim
Canan
C
Barutcuoglu
Burcu
B
Erdem
Levent
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014421:Turkey; D014820:Vitiligo / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral