The severity of several chronic inflammatory diseases was reported to be associated with polymorphism of the IL-1 receptor antagonist gene(IL-lrn).

This study was performed to study the polymorphism of the IL-1rn in vitiligo and in the normal Korean population.

Thirty one cases of vitiligo and seventy nine normal Koreans as control were studied for the polymorphism of IL-1 rn.

The frequency of allele 2 of the IL- I rn in 31 patients with vitiligo was compared with that of the 79 healthy controls. The frequency of allele 2 was 1.6% in vitiligo patients and 3.8% in the normal controls.

There was no significant difference in the frequency of allele 2 between the vitiligo patients and normal controls.