Haplotypes of ABCB1 1236C >T (rs1128503), 2677G >T/A (rs2032582), and 3435C >T (rs1045642) in patients with bullous pemphigoid

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) constitutes the most prevalent disease in the group of bullous dermatoses with the autoimmune background. Some authors suggest that certain cytokines (IL-2, IFN-γ) may be transported by P-glycoprotein (P-gp), the product of the ABCB1 gene. ABCB1 polymorphism might affect not only the effectiveness of treatment with drugs that are P-gp substrates but also contribute to the development of diseases, including BP. In the present work, we resolved to conduct a haplotype analysis of ABCB1 in patients with BP and to answer the question of whether any of the haplotypes are able to affect the incidence of this entity. The study involved 71 patients with BP and 100 healthy volunteers. Determination of polymorphisms 1236C > T and 3435C > T in ABCB1 was carried out with the PCR–RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction–Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) method. The 2677G > T/A ABCB1 polymorphism was analyzed with the allele-specific PCR method. It was observed that the 1236T-2677G-3435T haplotype occurred with a statistically significantly lower frequency in patients with BP than in controls (1.4 vs. 10.0%). Carriers of this haplotype were also shown to have had a low relative risk for BP (OR = 0.13, p = 0.003). Haplotype analysis of ABCB1 conducted in patients with BP demonstrated that the 1236T-2677G-3435T haplotype may protect against development of this entity.