Abstract: Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease. It is a complex multifactorial disease and the pathogenesis is not fully understood. The dominant effect genes are located on chromosome 6p21.3 within the major histocompatibility complex region accounting for one-third of genetic contribution and therefore that cannot fully explain the disease pathogenesis. Studies reported that epigenetic mechanisms are also involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, such as DNA methylation, acetylation modification and MicroRNA regulation. The update of susceptibility genes and epigenetic regulation of psoriasis were reviewed in this paper.

Key words: genetics, epigenetics, psoriasis