Apolipoprotein C3 Gene Variants in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

BACKGROUND-Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with hepatic insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Whether this association has a genetic basis is unknown.

A case-control study on nutritional risk factors in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Indian population

“…Further, the nutritional risk factors in hepatic steatosis were evaluated to suggest the diet modifications required for asymptomatic healthy subjects with NAFLD. It was been recently reported that the prevalence of genetic variants in apolipoprotein C3 were associated with NAFLD and insulin resistance in a cohort study of Asian and non-Asian Indians, suggesting that other factors are responsible for the increased prevalence of NAFLD in Asian Indians (Peterson et al, 2006(Peterson et al, , 2010.…”

Risk of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and fibrosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and low visceral adiposity

“…Our results indicate that waist circumference, an easily available surrogate marker of visceral adiposity, was strongly correlated with metabolic alterations and severity of steatosis, but not with NASH and liver fibrosis. We conclude that not yet elucidated mechanisms, including genetic factors [18], [19], [20], [21], [22] and [23] not quantifiable by the simple measure of waist circumference, are responsible for liver disease progression in patients with NAFLD and that the risk of severe liver damage should not be underestimated in lean subjects.…”

Metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Is insulin resistance the link?

“…This hypothesis originates from the fact that NAFLD also develops in healthy subjects without criteria of MetS. For instance, healthy Indian and Asian men are more prone to develop hepatic steatosis and hepatic insulin resistance than other populations because of specific polymorphisms in the insulin-response element for the apolipoprotein C3 gene (Petersen et al, 2006(Petersen et al, , 2010. Confirming the role of the genome in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, another study revealed that Hispanic adults and children are at high risk for the development of NAFLD due to a missense mutation found in the Patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 gene (PNPLA3), which is more present in this ethnic group compared to the general population (Romeo et al, 2008).…”