Susceptibility to atopic dermatitis & histamine degrading enzyme
January 3, 2012Involvement of human histamine N-methyltransferase gene polymorphisms in
susceptibility to atopic dermatitis in korean children.
Lee HS, Kim SH, Kim KW, Baek JY, Park HS, Lee KE, Hong JY, Kim MN, Heo WI, Sohn
MH, Kim KE.
Department of Pediatrics and Institute of Allergy, Severance Biomedical Science
Institute, BK21 Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of
Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
PURPOSE: Histamine N-methyltransferase (HNMT) catalyzes one of two major
histamine metabolic pathways. Histamine is a mediator of pruritus in atopic
dermatitis (AD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between
HNMT polymorphisms and AD in children.
METHODS: We genotyped 763 Korean children for allelic determinants at four
polymorphic sites in the HNMT gene: -465T>C, -413C>T, 314C>T, and 939A>G.
Genotyping was performed using a TaqMan fluorogenic 5' nuclease assay. The
functional effect of the 939A>G polymorphism was analyzed.
RESULTS: Of the 763 children, 520 had eczema and 542 had atopy. Distributions of
the genotype and allele frequencies of the HNMT 314C>T polymorphism were
significantly associated with non-atopic eczema (P=0.004), and those of HNMT
939A>G were significantly associated with eczema in the atopy groups (P=0.048).
Frequency distributions of HNMT -465T>C and -413C>T were not associated with
eczema. Subjects who were AA homozygous or AG heterozygous for 939A>G showed
significantly higher immunoglobulin E levels than subjects who were GG homozygous
(P=0.009). In U937 cells, the variant genotype reporter construct had
significantly higher mRNA stability (P<0.001) and HNMT enzyme activity (P<0.001)
than the common genotype.
CONCLUSIONS: Polymorphisms in HNMT appear to confer susceptibility to AD in
Korean children.
Source: Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2012 Jan;4(1):31-6. Epub 2011 Nov 10
http://synapse.koreamed.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/0166AAIR/aair-4-31.pdf
Posted by Mariska. Posted In : dermatitis
