The Immunogenetics of Behcet's Disease

Behcet's disease (BD) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the blood vessels and thus could entangle virtually every organ of the body. Oral ulceration, genital aphthous lesions, and ocular inflammation are the main manifestations of the disease that tend to have a chronic, relapsing-remitting course. The disease comes from an association between environmental and genetic backgrounds. The clustering of cases in families and the high rate of co-occurrence of the disease in siblings were the initial findings that proposed a genetic basis for BD. Later on, multiple case-control studies and genome-wide association studies were able to clarify particular genes included in the etiopathogenesis of BD. The major gene polymorphisms include HLA and HLA-related genes, interleukins, and other genes involved in inflammation and transcription activation. Herein we have summarized the susceptibility genes that are associated with BD. Investigations on the genetics of BD could potentially clarify the disease pathogenesis and provide insights for the development of better treatments.