The Phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase Gene Val175Met Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Confers The Susceptibility To NASH

The phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase gene Val175Met single nucleotide polymorphism confers the susceptibility to NASHAims The aim of this study was to investigate whether the carriers of Val175Met variant impaired in PEMT activity are more susceptible to NASH in Japanese Kochi area. Methods Blood samples of 107 patients with biopsy-proven NASH and of 150 healthy volunteers were analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism.Results Val175Met variant allele of the PEMT gene was significantly more frequent in NASH patients than in healthy volunteers (p<0.001), and carriers of Val175Met variant were significantly more frequent in NASH patients than in healthy volunteers (p<0.01). Body mass index were significantly lower (p<0.05), and non-obese patients were significantly more frequent (p<0.001) in carriers of Val175Met variant than in homozygotes of wild type PEMT. M/- NASH patients had a lower level of HDL-cholesterol and a higher level of LDL-cholesterol compared to the V/V NASH patients did.Conclusions Val175Met variant of PEMT could be a candidate molecule that determines the susceptibility to NASH, because it is more frequently observed in NASH patients and non-obese persons with Val175Met variant of PEMT are facilitated to develop NASH. M/- NASH patients had a lower level of HDL-cholesterol and a higher level of LDL-cholesterol compared to the V/V NASH patients did. Therefore the M/- NASH persons are regarded to be latently at risk of the metabolic syndrome.