FLG Variation Differs between European Americans and African Americans

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic illness that often manifests in childhood as red, itchy, inflammatory, crusting skin lesions. However, the disease can occur at any age and waxes and wanes in severity. The most common genetic findings in children with AD are FLG (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man: #135940) loss of function (LOF) mutations found on the gene’s third exon. Europeans with the most severe and persistent forms of AD are more likely to have FLG LOF (Irvine et al., 2011; Margolis et al., 2012).