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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2005. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 14, 2005; 11(38): 6043-6048
Published online Oct 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i38.6043
CD14 promoter polymorphism in Chinese alcoholic patients with cirrhosis of liver and acute pancreatitis
You-Chen Chao, Heng-Cheng Chu, Wei-Kuo Chang, Hsin-Hung Huang, Tsai-Yuan Hsieh
You-Chen Chao, Heng-Cheng Chu, Wei-Kuo Chang, Hsin-Hung Huang, Tsai-Yuan Hsieh, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by grants from the Taiwan National Science Council (NSC- 91-2314-B-016-109) and from the ShuYuan Education and Academic Promotion Foundation
Correspondence to: You-Chen Chao, MD, No. 325, Section 2, Cheng-Kung Road, Neihu 114, Taipei, Taiwan, China. chaoycmd@ndmctsgh.edu.tw
Telephone: +886-2-87927008 Fax: +886-2-87927009
Received: December 28, 2004
Revised: February 23, 2005
Accepted: February 28, 2005
Published online: October 14, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the relationship between genetic polymorphism of the CD14 promoter and the occurrence of alcoholic cirrhosis and alcoholic pancreatitis, and to challenge the conclusion made earlier that the patients with acute alcoholic pancreatitis and patients with alcoholic cirrhosis of liver are two different subpopulations.

METHODS: Using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method, we determined the polymorphism of CD14 gene and aldehyde dehydrogenase gene 2 (ALDH 2) in 335 alcoholic patients with different organ complications i.e., cirrhosis of liver (n = 100), acute pancreatitis (n = 100), esophageal cancer (n = 82) and avascular necrosis of hip joint (AVN) (n = 53) and 194 non-alcoholic controls in a Chinese group.

RESULTS: The results showed that the carriage of T allele was not different among alcoholic patients with cirrhosis of liver, alcoholic patients with other complication and non-alcoholic controls. On the other hand, the carriage of the C allele was significantly more prevalent for alcoholic pancreatitis than for esophageal cancer (0.79 vs 0.60, P<0.001), alcoholic AVN (0.79vs 0.65, P<0.025) and non-alcoholic controls (0.79 vs 0.68, P<0.025). Furthermore, when only subjects with ALDH2 1-1 genotype were examined, the C allele frequency was significantly more prevalent for alcoholic pancreatitis than for alcoholic liver cirrhosis (0.82 vs 0.69, P<0.025), esophageal cancer (0.82 vs 0.61, P<0.01), alcoholic AVN (0.82 vs 0.64, P<0.01) and non-alcoholic controls (0.82 vs 0.69, P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The C allele may be associated with some mechanism, which is important in the pathogenesis of alcoholic pancreatitis, and that alcoholic patients with acute pancreatitis and cirrhosis of liver are probably two different subpopulations.

Keywords: CD14 promoter; Polymorphism; Alcoholic patients