Abstract: Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is an autoimmune bullous skin disease closely related to celiac disease, which is mainly prevalent in Caucasian populations, and rare in Asian population. Genetic studies have found that the genetic risk factors of DH in Caucasians are HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8, which have been included in the diagnostic criteria. DH risk factors in Chinese are HLA-B*0801 and HLA-DRB1*0301, which have not been included in the diagnostic criteria. DH is mainly caused by gluten intake. The epidermal transglutaminase is autoantigen, and the tissue transglutaminase antibody can be positive. The effective treatment for DH is dapsone. The update of DH is summarized including epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis and so on in this paper.

Key words: dermatitis herpetiformis, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, epidermal transglutaminase, gut microbiota