Abstract
Aims
It has recently been shown that an allele in the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR) gene was associated with increased liver fat content in obese children. In this study, we set out to determine whether GCKR rs1260326 polymorphism was associated with liver fat content in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods
Three hundred and eight patients with type 2 diabetes were included in this study. Liver fat content was evaluated using 1H-MR spectroscopy.
Results
In our population, carriers of the rs1260326 minor T allele had a higher liver fat content than did carriers of the C allele homozygote (12.4 ± 9.6 vs. 10.3 ± 9.1 %, p = 0.03). The number of patients with steatosis was significantly higher in minor T allele carriers than in C allele homozygote carriers (70.7 vs. 55.4 %; p = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, the predictive variables for steatosis were BMI [odds ratio (OR) 1.08; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.13; p = 0.002], statin therapy (yes) [OR 0.54; 95 % CI 0.31–0.94; p = 0.03], metformin therapy (yes) [OR 2.67; 95 % CI 1.50–4.75; p < 0.001], and rs1260326 GCKR polymorphism (TT+CT) [OR 1.99; 95 % CI 1.14–3.47; p = 0.01].
Conclusions
This study shows that in patients with type 2 diabetes who were not selected for liver abnormalities, liver fat content was related to GCKR rs1260326 polymorphism independent of BMI, triglyceride levels, and age.
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Abbreviations
- GCKR:
-
Glucokinase regulatory protein
- NAFLD:
-
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- LFC:
-
Liver fat content
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon and the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne (AOI 2010). We thank Dr C Bonithon-Kopp of the Centre d’Investigation Clinique–INSERM CHU de Dijon for assistance with this study Sabrina Cousin and Francoise Virely for technical assistance and Philip BASTABLE for his help in reviewing the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical disclosure
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
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Petit, JM., Masson, D., Guiu, B. et al. GCKR polymorphism influences liver fat content in patients with type 2 diabetes. Acta Diabetol 53, 237–242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-015-0766-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-015-0766-4