title: Predictive impact of polymorphism of PNPLA3 on HCC development after interferon therapy in Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: The impact of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) on development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not clarified for Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C. The present study investigated the associations of rs738409 PNPLA3 with HCC development after the antiviral therapy with peg-interferon and ribavirin for Japanese patients with hepatitis C virus serotype 1 and high viral load. Of the 271 patients enrolled in the study, 20 patients developed HCC, during a median follow-up period of 4.6 years. Multivariate analysis in the proportional hazards models revealed that sex, body mass index, platelet counts, and alpha feroprotein (AFP) had significant associations with HCC development (p = 0.011, 0.029, 0.0002, and 0.046, respectively). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that PNPLA3 148 M was significantly associated with serum AFP level (p = 0.032), other than body mass index, platelet count, and alanine aminotransferase (p = 0.0006, 0.0002, and 0.037, respectively), and that serum AFP level was significantly associated with PNPLA3 148 M (p = 0.017). Serum AFP level is an important factor in predicting HCC development after the antiviral therapy for Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C, the mechanism of which might involve its significant associations with the SNP genotype of PNPLA3.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital, Takamatsu, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moritou
authors.forename: Fusao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Kouichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takaguchi
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Senoh
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Yasuto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yasunaka
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.forename: Akinobu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takaki
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nouso
authors.forename: Kazuhide
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
keywords: HCC; HCV; Interferon; PNPLA3