BACKGROUND/AIMS: Alcohol abuse is becoming an increasingly severe problem among the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities in the northeast of China. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and the genetic polymorphism of two enzymes, cytochrome P450IIE1 (CYPIIE1) and glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) in patients of three nationalities. METHODOLOGY: Peripheral blood was collected from 353 Chinese patients with ALD, 300 alcohol-dependent patients without liver disease (alcoholic) and 360 healthy controls. Each group included patients from the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used in this research. RESULTS: Regardless of nationality patients who carried the rare CYPIIE1 C2 and GSTP1 Val allele were at higher risk of ALD. The frequency of C2 and Val in patients with ALD was 50.00% and 26.98% in the Han, 31.36% and 22.87% in the Mongol and 45.87% and 22.02% in the Chaoxian, respectively. No significant differences were seen in the frequency of either the C2 or Val alleles in ALD, among the three nationalities. In each nationality, the frequency of both the C2 and Val alleles was significantly higher in ALD compared to alcoholic and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: In this group of Chinese patients, we found that regardless of nationality, patients with ALD tended to carry the C2 allele and the Val allele. This may indicate a causal relationship between these polymorphic alleles that lead to the development of ALD.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Alcohol abuse is becoming an increasingly severe problem among the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities in the northeast of China. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and the genetic polymorphism of two enzymes, cytochrome P450IIE1 (CYPIIE1) and glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) in patients of three nationalities. METHODOLOGY: Peripheral blood was collected from 353 Chinese patients with ALD, 300 alcohol-dependent patients without liver disease (alcoholic) and 360 healthy controls. Each group included patients from the Han, Mongol and Chaoxian nationalities. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used in this research. RESULTS: Regardless of nationality patients who carried the rare CYPIIE1 C2 and GSTP1 Val allele were at higher risk of ALD. The frequency of C2 and Val in patients with ALD was 50.00% and 26.98% in the Han, 31.36% and 22.87% in the Mongol and 45.87% and 22.02% in the Chaoxian, respectively. No significant differences were seen in the frequency of either the C2 or Val alleles in ALD, among the three nationalities. In each nationality, the frequency of both the C2 and Val alleles was significantly higher in ALD compared to alcoholic and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: In this group of Chinese patients, we found that regardless of nationality, patients with ALD tended to carry the C2 allele and the Val allele. This may indicate a causal relationship between these polymorphic alleles that lead to the development of ALD.