RESEARCH ARTICLE Association of IgE-mediated allergen sensitivity and promoter polymorphisms of chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 5 gene in Han Chinese patients with allergic skin diseases Ji-Chang Zhou • Yu-mei Zhu • Zheng Chen • Shan He • Shi-jie Zheng • Jun-luan Mo • Xiao-li Liu • Chun-mei Gong • Bin Hou • Hui Yang Received: 30 September 2014 / Accepted: 4 February 2015 / Published online: 13 February 2015 Ó The Genetics Society of Korea and Springer-Science and Media 2015 Abstract Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs2280788 (-28C [ G) and rs2107538 (-403G [ A), in the promoter region of chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 5 (CCL5) was reported to be involved in the immunoglobulin E (IgE) expression and IgE-mediated allergic reactions. This study was to investigate the characteristics of total serum IgE level, specific allergen sensitivities and the two SNPs in the allergic skin disease (ASD) patients. ASD patients visiting the dermatological outpatient department of a local hospital were included with certain criteria, and the fasting venous blood was sampled for analysis. Total serum IgE was assayed with an ELISA kit, and 14 kinds of allergen-specific IgE were tested with an allergen screening system. The polymerase chain reaction–restriction frag- ment length polymorphism method was used to analyze the two SNPs. Among the finally included 437 patients aged from 16 to 85 years, 68.2 % was positive for the total serum IgE, 49.2 % was positive for at least one of the assayed allergen-specific IgE, and 35.0 % was sensitive to house dust mite. In the SNPs analysis, the GG/(GA?AA) ratio and G/A ratio for the -403G [ A locus in the male and/or female C45 years subgroup were significantly lower in the total serum IgE positive patients than in the negative patients (P \ 0.05). Weak linkage disequilibrium was found between -403A and -28C alleles in male subgroups adjusted by age. Conclusively, house dust mite was the most common allergen in ASD patients, and -403A allele of CCL5 promoter was a risk factor for IgE-mediated sensitization. Keywords Allergic skin disease Á Chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 5 Á Single nucleotide polymorphism Á Immunoglobulin E Introduction When the body is exposed to the same specific allergen or antigen again after its first sensitization, abnormal or pathological immune responses may occur in the skin. This group of inflammatory diseases is called allergic skin dis- ease (ASD), including atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, urticaria, angioedema, psoriasis, and autoimmune blister- ing disorders. The prevalence of ASD is getting increased year by year (Okada et al. 2010; Pawankar et al. 2011). For example, the lifetime prevalence of urticaria is more than 20 % (Pawankar et al. 2011), and atopic dermatitis affects adults and children with worldwide prevalence rates of 1–20 % (DaVeiga 2012). ASD is mainly mediated by im- munoglobulin E (IgE) synthesized and secreted by B cells, and partly by non-IgE (Nichols and Cook-Bolden 2009; Jenerowicz et al. 2012; Rosenwasser 2011). The skin in- flammation is generally caused by allergens via inhalation, ingestion, and local contact, and may lead to specific IgE secretion. In the IgE-mediated ASD, IgE is a critical factor of allergic inflammation of ASD, involved in both early- phase and late-phase of hypersensitivity reaction (Rosen- wasser 2011). Thus, total serum IgE test is thought to be valuable for diagnosis and treatment of ASD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13258-015-0274-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. J.-C. Zhou Á Y. Zhu Á Z. Chen Á S. He Á S. Zheng Á J. Mo Á X. Liu Á C. Gong Á B. Hou Á H. Yang (&) Molecular Biology Lab, Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control, 2021 Buxin Road, Luohu District, Shenzhen 518020, People’s Republic of China e-mail: biolabsz@163.com 123 Genes Genom (2015) 37:451–458 DOI 10.1007/s13258-015-0274-5