Susceptibility of gastric cancer according to leptin and leptin receptor gene polymorphisms in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
Leptin plays an important role in the control of body weight and also has a growth-factor-like function in epithelial cells. Abnormal expression of leptin and leptin receptor may be associated with cancer development and progression. We evaluated the relationship among leptin and leptin receptors polymorphisms, body mass index (BMI), serum leptin concentrations, and clinicopathologic features with gastric cancer and determined whether they could be the risk factor of gastric cancer.


METHODS
We measured the serum leptin concentrations of 48 Korean patients with gastric cancer and 48 age- and sex-matched controls. By polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, we investigated one leptin gene promoter G-2548A genotype and four leptin receptor gene polymorphisms at codons 223, 109, 343, and 656.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the mean leptin concentrations of the patient and control groups, while BMI was significantly lower in gastric cancer cases (22.9 ± 3.6 vs. 24.5 ± 2.8 kg/m(2), P = 0.021). There was significant association between the LEPR Lys109Arg genotype and gastric cancer risk, heterozygotes for GA genotype had been proved to increased the risk of gastric cancer, and its corresponding odds ratio was 2.926 (95% confidence interval, 1.248 to 6.861).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggested that LEPR gene Lys109Arg polymorphism is associated with gastric cancer in Korean patients.
Department of Surgery, St. Vincent's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
Eun-Young
EY
Kim
Hyung-Min
HM
Chin
Seung-Man
SM
Park
Hae-Myung
HM
Jeon
Woo-Chul
WC
Chung
Chang-Nyol
CN
Paik
Kyong-Hwa
KH
Jun