Korean J Med.  2001 Mar;60(3):222-227.

Effects of cytochrome P450 2E1 polymorphism on hepatic injury in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis

• Koh MS
• Lee JY
• Joo MH
• Jeon MJ
• Noh HJ
• Kim JB
• Kim DJ
• Kim JA
• Chung YH

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is an individual variation in the hepatic injuries following alcohol abuse, which may be partly caused by the diverse activities of enzymes participating in the degradation of alcohol. Polymorphism of cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) gene has been reported to affect the degradating activity of the enzyme, which may be eventually associated with the severity of alcoholic liver disease. In this study we were to evaluate the effects of genetic polymorphism of CYP2E1 on hepatocellular injury or fibrosis.
METHODS
We analyzed the relationship of CYP2E1 genotypes to the biochemical and clinical characteristics as well as TGFbeta1 expressions in a total of 33 patients (M:F=32:1) with advanced alcoholic liver cirrhosis. CYP2E1 genotypes were determined by RFLP using RsaI and PstI. The amounts of serum TGFbeta1 were measured by ELISA (TGFbetta1 ELISA system, Promega, USA).
RESULTS
Out of 33, 23 (70%) had the CYP2E1 of genotype A and all of the remaining 10 (30%) were type B; there was no one who had type C. The serum albumin levels of patients with type A of CYP2E1 gene were lower than those with type B (p=0.01); the Child-Pugh scores were also higher in patients with type A than B (p=0.03). However, there was no difference between the two groups in the serum AST, ALT, gamma-GTP and bilirubin levels. The patients expressed similar amount of serum TGFbetta1 regardless of their CYP2E1 genotypes.
CONCLUSION
Our data indicates that the most common genotype of CYP2E1 is type A (70%) in patients with advanced alcoholic liver cirrhosis in Korea. It is also suggested that patients with enotype A of CYP2E1 may be associated with more advanced alcoholic liver cirrhosis compared to those with type B.

Keyword

Liver Cirrhosis; Alcoholic; Cytochrome P-450; Polymorphism; Transforming growth factor beta

MeSH Terms

Alcoholics*
Alcoholism
Bilirubin
Cytochrome P-450 CYP2E1*
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System*
Cytochromes*
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Fibrosis
Genotype
Humans
Korea
Liver Cirrhosis
Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic*
Liver Diseases, Alcoholic
Polymorphism, Genetic
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Serum Albumin
Transforming Growth Factor beta
Bilirubin
Cytochrome P-450 CYP2E1
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System
Cytochromes
Serum Albumin
Transforming Growth Factor beta