title: Is there any relationship between hepatitis C virus and vitiligo?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, SiSli Etfal Education and Research Hospital, Turkey. akbayirn@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Nihat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akbayir
authors.forename: Gonca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gökdemir
authors.forename: Tülin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mansur
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sökmen
authors.forename: Sevil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gündüz
authors.forename: Canan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alkim
authors.forename: Burcu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barutcuoglu
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Erdem
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral