Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 14, 2017; 23(22): 4047-4053
Published online Jun 14, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i22.4047
Association of keratin 8/18 variants with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance in Chinese patients: A case-control study
Rui Li, Xian-Hua Liao, Jun-Zhao Ye, Min-Rui Li, Yan-Qin Wu, Xuan Hu, Bi-Hui Zhong
Rui Li, Xian-Hua Liao, Jun-Zhao Ye, Min-Rui Li, Yan-Qin Wu, Xuan Hu, Bi-Hui Zhong, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Li R and Liao XH wrote the manuscript and performed the data analysis; Ye JZ designed the research; Li MR, Wu YQ and Hu X performed the research; Zhong BH revised the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81670518 and No. 81170392; The Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province, China, No. 2013B021800290 and No. 2014A020212118; and Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Commission, China, No. 201604020155.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Bi-Hui Zhong, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 58 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China. sophiazhong@medmail.com.cn
Telephone: +86-20-87755766 Fax: +86-20-87332916
Received: January 31, 2017
Peer-review started: February 8, 2017
First decision: February 23, 2017
Revised: March 10, 2017
Accepted: May 4, 2017
Article in press: May 4, 2017
Published online: June 14, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: This study presents the first investigation of the association between keratin 8 and 18 (K8/K18) variants and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a Chinese population. We found an increased frequency of variants in NAFLD patients vs controls. We also identified a new amino acid-altering variant of K18. The results demonstrate that keratin variants are overrepresented in Chinese NAFLD patients and might accelerate liver fat storage through insulin resistance.