MARCH 24, 2016 – BY MAGDALENA KEGEL IN NEWS.
Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition affecting mostly fair-skinned individuals. A study from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, recently showed that the condition in women is also associated with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Recent genome wide association studies (GWAS) have pinpointed genetic risk factors of the disease that also increase risk for type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. Several other studies have shown that genetic risk factors for a number of autoimmune diseases tend to cluster, and another GWAS found as many as 90 shared genetic regions linked to rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes.
Given the large genetic overlap between various autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, the study — “Clustering of autoimmune diseases in patients with rosacea,“ published in the JAAD — set out to explore if rosacea could be linked to multiple sclerosis, as well as a number of other autoimmune diseases.
The research team identified all patients diagnosed with rosacea in Denmark between Jan. 1, 1997, and Dec. 31, 2011, as either hospital in-patients or out-patients. The team then matched each patient with five controls of the same age, sex, and calendar time. In total, the study encompasses 6,759 rosacea patients and 33,795 controls.
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