Analysis of human leukocyte antigen allele polymorphism in patients with non alcoholic fatty liver disease

摘要

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes may play a role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease ( NAFLD ) and its progressive form, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis ( NASH ). The aim of this study was to assess the association of HLA class I and II alleles with NASH and its histological features. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from 140 subjects (85 biopsy-proven NAFLD and 55 controls) and genotyped for HLA (-A, -B, -C, -DR1, -DR3, -DQ, and -DP). Liver biopsies were assessed for presence of NASH , degree of fibrosis and inflammation. Multivariate analysis was performed to assess associations between HLA genes and different histologic features of NAFLD . Our data for HLA class I showed that HLA-C*4 was associated with lower risk for histologic NASH and HLA-C*6 was protective against portal fibrosis. Conversely, HLA-B*27 was associated with high-grade hepatic steatosis , while HLA-A*31 was associated with increased risk for advanced fibrosis. Among HLA class II alleles, HLA-DQA1*01 was associated with lower risk for NASH while HLA-DRB1*03 was associated with increased risk for NASH . Our findings indicate that HLA class I and II gene polymorphism may be associated with susceptibility to NASH , fibrosis and other pathologic features and may be involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD .