Association of MDR1 gene polymorphisms with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma in the Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of MDR1 gene polymorphisms with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS A total of 689 HCC patients and 680 cancer-free subjects were enrolled. Human MDR1 gene polymorphisms were investigated by created restriction site- polymerase chain reaction (CRS-PCR) and DNA sequencing methods. Multiple logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association between MDR1 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to HCC. RESULTS We detected a novel c.4125A>C polymorphism and our findings suggested that this variant was significantly associated with susceptibility to HCC. A significantly increased susceptibility to HCC was noted in the homozygote comparison (CC versus AA: OR=1.621, 95% CI 1.143-2.300, χ2=7.4095, P=0.0065), recessive model (CC versus AC+AA: OR=1.625, 95% CI 1.167-2.264, χ2=8.3544, P=0.0039) and allele contrast (C versus A: OR=1.185, 95% CI 1.011-1.389, χ2=4.4046, P=0.0358). However, no significant increase was observed in the heterozygote comparison (AC versus AA: OR=0.995, 95% CI 0.794-1.248, χ2=0.0017, P=0.9672) and dominant model (CC+AC versus AA: OR=1.106, 95% CI 0.894-1.369, χ2=0.8560, P=0.3549). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the c.4125A>C polymorphism of the MDR1 gene might contribute to susceptibility to HCC in the Chinese population. Further work will be necessary to clarify the relationship between the c.4125A>C polymorphism and susceptibility to HCC on larger populations of diverse ethnicity.