MTP -493G/T gene polymorphism is associated with steatosis in hepatitis C-infected patients

the reduction of hepatic microsomal transfer protein (mtp) activity results in fatty liver, worsening hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in chronic hepatitis c (chc). the g allele of the mtp gene promoter, -493g/t, has been associated with lower transcriptional activity than the t allele. we investigated this association with metabolic and histological variables in patients with chc. a total of 174 untreated patients with chc were genotyped for mtp -493g/t by direct sequencing using pcr. all patients were negative for markers of wilson’s disease, hemochromatosis and autoimmune diseases and had current and past daily alcohol intake lower than 100 g/week. the sample distribution was in hardy-weinberg equilibrium. among subjects with genotype 1, 56.8% of the patients with fibrosis grade 3+4 presented at least one g allele versus 34.3% of the patients with fibrosis grade 1+2 (or = 1.8; 95%ci = 1.3-2.3). logistic regression analysis with steatosis as the dependent variable identified genotypes gg+gt as independent protective factors against steatosis (or = 0.4, 95%ci = 0.2-0.8; p = 0.01). the results suggest that the presence of the g allele of mtp -493g/t associated with lower hepatic mtp expression protects against steatosis in our chc patients.