Two Genetic Links to Rosacea Identified

Stanford University School of Medicine announced in March's issue of The Journal of Investigative Dermatology that they've identified two genetic links in rosacea. This is a first big step into discovering if rosacea is linked to other diseases or disorder that affect the entire body.

The Study

Working with a biotech company, 23andMe, Stanford University School of Medicine collected saliva samples from more than 5,000 rosacea patients who have European ancestors. Two experiments were run, one with over 2,600 patients and the other with just over 3,200 rosacea patients. Skin samples were also taken from some patients. The saliva samples were compared to view the similarities in the DNA's nucleotides.

The Findings

Two similarities were found, and in both cases, they were near genes responsible for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases like diabetes, inflammatory bowel syndrome, and MS. With that knowledge, Stanford University is now progressing to see if rosacea could be linked to the development of other diseases.

The other benefit to finding the genetic links is that now there is hope that scientists will be able to find how the different cases of rosacea respond to different treatments. That's been one issue with rosacea, every patient is different. If researchers can link the best treatments to the different rosacea forms, it could mean faster and more effective treatments for men and women with rosacea.