Polymorphisms of folate metabolism genes in patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM To evaluated the association of the risk factors and polymorphisms in MTHFR C677T, MTHFR A1298C, MTR A2756G and MTRR A66G genes. METHODS Patients with cirrhosis (n = 116), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (n = 71) and controls (n = 356) were included. Polymerase chain reaction followed by enzymatic digestion and allelic discrimination technique real-time PCR techniques were used for analysis. MINITAB-14.0 and SNPstats were utilized for statistical analysis. RESULTS Showed that age ≥ 46 years (OR = 10.31; 95%CI: 5.66-18.76; P < 0.001) and smoking (OR = 0.47; 95%CI: 0.28-0.78; P = 0.003) were associated with cirrhosis. Age ≥ 46 years (OR = 16.36; 95%CI: 6.68-40.05; P < 0.001) and alcohol habit (OR = 2.01; 95%CI: 1.03-3.89; P = 0.039) were associated with HCC. MTHFR A1298C in codominant model (OR = 3.37; 95%CI: 1.52-7.50; P = 0.014), recessive model (OR = 3.04; 95%CI: 1.43-6.47; P = 0.0051) and additive model (OR = 1.71; 95%CI: 1.16-2.52; P = 0.0072) was associated with HCC, as well as MTR A2756G in the additive model (OR = 1.68; 95%CI: 1.01-2.77; P = 0.047), and MTRR A66G in the codominant model (OR = 3.26; 95%CI: 1.54-6.87; P < 0.001), dominant model (OR = 2.55; 95%CI: 1.24-5.25; P = 0.007) and overdominant model (OR = 3.05; 95%CI: 1.66-5.62; P < 0.001). MTR A2756G in the additive model (OR = 1.54; 95%CI: 1.02-2.33; P = 0.042) and smokers who presented at least one polymorphic allele for MTRR A66G (OR = 1.71; 95%CI: 0.77-3.82; P = 0.0051) showed increased risk for cirrhosis. There was no association between clinical parameters and polymorphisms. CONCLUSION Age ≥ 46 years, alcohol habit and MTR A2756G, MTHFR A1298C and MTRR A66G polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of HCC development; age ≥ 46 years, tobacco habit and the MTR A2756G polymorphism are associated with cirrhosis.