Eye Color Associates with Risks of Skin Diseases

Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease in which pigment loss results in irregular white patches of skin and hair. Melanoma is the most dangerous kind of skin cancer. Richard Spritz, from the University of Colorado School of Medicine (Colorado, USA), and colleagues have identified 13 new genes that predispose to vitiligo. Among the vitiligo patients, approximately 27% had blue/gray eyes, 43% had tan or brown eyes and 30% had green or hazel eyes, which is significantly different from the normal distribution of eye color where approximately 52% of Americans of Non-Hispanic European ancestry have blue/gray eyes, 22% have green/hazel eyes, and 27% have tan or brown eyes. The team further submits that because genetically, in some ways vitiligo and melanoma are polar opposites, with some of the same genetic variations that make one more likely to have vitiligo make one less likely to have melanoma, and vice-versa, people with brown eyes may be less likely to have melanoma.