title: Association of mitochondrial DNA content in peripheral blood leukocyte with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma in a Chinese Han population.
abstract: Increasing epidemiological evidence has indicated that inherited variations of mtDNA content could affect the genetic susceptibility of many malignancies in a tumor-specific manner. However, the association between mtDNA content and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains undetermined. In this study, mtDNA content of peripheral blood leukocytes was determined using quantitative real-time PCR in a case-control study consisting of 274 HCC cases, 126 non-cancer patient controls with chronic liver diseases (CLD), and 258 healthy controls. We found that HCC cases had a significant lower mtDNA content than CLD controls (median [range]: 0.77 [0.17-2.30] vs 0.84 [0.32-3.37]; P = 0.012) and healthy controls (0.77 [0.17-2.30] vs 0.84 [0.35-3.44]; P = 0.035). There was no difference in mtDNA content between CLD and healthy controls (0.84 [0.32-3.37] vs 0.84 [0.35-3.44]; P = 0.261). We further assessed the association between mtDNA content and HCC and found that, compared to individuals with high mtDNA content, those with low mtDNA content had a significantly increased risk of HCC when health controls (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.06-2.55), CLD controls (aOR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.10-2.25) or combined controls (aOR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.12-2.14) were used as reference. In addition, stratified analyses showed that the significant association was only evident in younger individuals, male individuals, ever-smokers, and never-drinkers. Collectively, our findings provided the first epidemiological evidence that mtDNA content in peripheral blood leukocytes is significantly associated with HCC, which warrants further validation in prospective studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Tangdu Hospital State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Department of Cell Biology and Cell Engineering Research Center, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Siyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yefa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hanqiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Naijian
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Hushan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hongxin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jinliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial