Association of Apolipoprotein E Genotypes with Disease Progression in Hepatitis B Virus Infected Patients

Abstract

Background/aims: Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) plays an important role in regulating lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, and ApoE genotypes are known to affect plasma lipoprotein concentrations. We investigated whether ApoE genotype determine disease outcome in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected individuals, and to verify the association with the occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic liver diseases of various etiologies.

Methods: This hospital based case-control study enrolled 183 subjects (47 healthy controls, 50 HBV originated liver cirrhosis, 86 HCC). ApoE genotypes were determined by ApoE genotyping kit, using a PCR method. To verify the biological significances of ApoE genotype, a serum ApoE levels were measured by ELISA kit.

Results: The ε3 allele was the most common allele, with allele frequencies of 5.7% for ε2 allele, 84.7% for the ε3 allele and 9.6 % for ε4 allele in all participants. We identified that ApoE genotype was associated with the progression to liver cirrhosis in chronic HBV carriers. Being an ApoE4 carrier was associated with a lower probability of developing liver cirrhosis. No influence of ApoE genotypes on the susceptibility to the occurrence of HCC was found. The serum ApoE measurements revealed a significantly higher level of ApoE in patients with liver cirrhosis than those in the healthy controls, but we observed no significant difference in the serum ApoE levels, with regard to ApoE genotype.

Conclusion: This study indicates that ApoE genotypes may be a part of genetic variation underlying the susceptibility of individuals to disease progression of chronic HBV infection.