Moreover, the systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IFN-λ1 and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were quantified using commercial ELISA kits.<h4>Results</h4>HERV-W <i>env</i> was upregulated in patients with vitiligo and expressed approximately 2.5-fold change when compared with healthy individuals (<i>p</i> = 0.005), whereas HERV-H <i>pol</i> and HERV-K <i>gag</i> were downregulated in these patients as the healthy controls expressed 3.5-fold change (<i>p</i> = 0.001) and twofold change (<i>p</i> = 0.005), respectively. Here, IFNG is linked to vitiligo.