OBJECTIVETo investigate the association between two polymorphisms of the APOC3 gene (T-455C and C-482T) and hereditary risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

METHODSA total of 287 patients with NAFLD and 310 control subjects were genotyped by PCR and direct sequencing. Serum lipid profiles were also detected by standard biochemical

METHODSOne-hundred-and-eighty of the study participants were used to measure the APOC3 content by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Inter-group differences and associations were assessed statistically using Chi square and t tests and logistic and linear regression analyses.

RESULTSThe frequencies of neither the genotypes or alleles were significantly different between the NAFLD cases and the controls. Compared with the most common genotypes-455TT or-482CC, none of the variants showed a significant increase in risk of NAFLD or for the clinical and biochemical parameters. The adjusted odds ratios (with 95% confidence intervals) of NAFLD were 1.25 (0.79-1.96) and 1.20 (0.76-1.89) for carriers of the APOC3-455C and-482 T variants respectively (P more than 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe T-455C and C-482T polymorphisms of the APOC3 gene are not associated with risk of NAFLD, pathogenic changes in lipid profiles, or insulin resistance in Han Chinese.

Adult ; Aged ; Alleles ; Apolipoprotein C-III ; genetics ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance ; Lipids ; blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease ; genetics ; metabolism ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Young Adult