Korean J Hepatol.  2002 Dec;8(4):355-362.

Relation of Apolipoprotein E Polymorphism to Clinically Diagnosed Fatty Liver Disease

• Lee DM
• Lee SO
• Mun BS
• Ahn HS
• Park HY
• Lee HS
• Kim DG

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Apolipoprotein E (Apo E) is important in plasma lipid metabolism and is a component of several plasma lipoprotein-lipid particles. Three major Apo E isoforms are encoded by three common allelic forms, epsilon2, epsilon3, and epsilon4 at the APO E locus. The goal of this study was to examine the association between polymorphisms in the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) and fatty liver disease. METHODS: We examined the distribution of APOE alleles from 116 fatty liver patients and 50 controls in Korea. RESULTS: The frequencies of APOE alleles in fatty liver patients were 6.5% in epsilon2, 85.7% in epsilon3 and 7.8% in epsilon4. The corresponding frequencies in control subjects were 4.0% in epsilon2, 91.0% in epsilon3 and 5.0% in epsilon4. There were no significant differences in the distribution of APOE genotypes between fatty liver patients and controls. APOE epsilon2 and epsilon4 allele frequencies in fatty liver patients were more than those in controls. However, there was no significant differences in APOE epsilon2 and epsilon4 allele frequencies. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that APOE alleles seem not to be directly associated with the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease.

Keyword

Fatty liver; Apolipoprotein E gene; Polymorphism; Body mass index

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Apolipoproteins E/*genetics
English Abstract
Fatty Liver/*genetics
Female
Gene Frequency
Human
Male
Middle Aged
*Polymorphism (Genetics)