ApolipoproteinC3 Gene Variants in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Egypt

Background and Objective: Apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3) is a component of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and APOC3 gene polymorphisms have been associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), hypertriglyceridaemia and insulin-resistance.This study was undertaken to determine if the APOC3 gene variants were associated with the susceptibility of obese subjects to develop liver damage, hypertriglyceridaemia and insulin-resistance.Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 100 unrelated obese Egyptians.These cases were compared to 83 normal weight healthy controls.All participants were subjected to an estimation of their body mass index (BMI) in addition to liver functions and lipid profile.Polymerase chain reaction Polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (SSP-PCR) was performed to detect the of APOC3 rs2854116 and rs2854117 polymorphic genotypes.Results: Cases showed a significantly higher frequency of the APOC3 T-455C, CC genotype than controls (32 vs. 9.6%, p = 0.0003, Odds ratio = 5.33, 95% CI = 2.2-12.7).In addition, the allelic frequency of the rare APOC3 -455 C allele was significantly higher among cases than controls (51 vs. 30.72%,p = 0.0001, OR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.5-3.6).On the other hand cases showed a non-significant difference regarding all APOC3 C-482T genotypes (CT vs. CC, TT vs. CC and CT+TT vs. CC) as well as APOC3 -482 T vs. C alleles.All cases showed no significant difference of their hematologic, liver functions and lipid profile related to their genetic polymorphism.Conclusion: The polymorphism T-455C but not the C-482T in APOC3 gene was associated with NAFLD in Egyptian obese subjects.However, it did not affect their hematologic, liver and lipid profile parameters.