The different research lines explored to investigate the importance of inherited human factors in determining resistance/susceptibility to the infection provoked by Mycobacterium leprae have been discussed in the present paper. A synthesis of these approaches allowed us to analyze the results of the investigations on the association of leprosy to genetic polymorphisms, familial distribution of leprosy, prevalence of leprosy and genetic distance, concordance rate of leprosy among twins, and genetic studies on Mitsuda reaction.
Leprosy; Genetics; Infectious diseases