Abstract
Purpose Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease is a rare autoimmune disease. The autoimmune response in VKH disease is against the melanin-producing cells; therefore, in affected individuals melanocyte-containing organs manifest disease symptoms including eyes, ears, skin and nervous system. VKH is a multifactorial disease, and the precise cause of the VKH disease is unknown. Studies have suggested that both environmental and genetic factors are responsible for the VKH disease. In this review, the authors have collected all the available literature on the genetics of VKH to their knowledge and discussed the role of genetic variants in causing VKH disease. Methods An extensive literature search was performed in order to review all the published studies regarding VKH clinical phenotyping and genetic variants in VKH disease. Medline, PubMed, Cochrane library, and Scopus was searched using combination of keywords. Results It was found that variants in HLA genes,IL-12b,TNFSF4, andmiR-20-5pgenes are significantly associated with VKH; however, variants in genesATG10,TNIP1andCLEC16Adid not achieve significant genome-wide association threshold. Moreover, polymorphisms inTNIP1andCLEC16Aplay a protective role against VKH. Conclusion The authors conclude that increased sample size and a more homogeneous VKH patient population may reveal a significant association of variants inATG10, TNIP1 and CLEC16Agenes with VKH disease.