Association between RsaI and AluI polymorphism in the estrogen receptor beta gene and primary hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

To investigate whether there is a association between estrogen receptor beta (ERb) gene polymorphism and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). 100 primary HCC patients and 100 controls from southwestern China were recruited in this study. The polymorphism of RsaI and AluI in ERb gene was analyzed by PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). R allelic frequency was 35.0% and 51.0% in HCC patients and in control group, respectively, odds ratio (OR) was 0.517 [95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.346-0.773], P less than 0.01. A allelic frequency was 20.5% and 11.0% in HCC patients and in control group, respectively, OR was 2.086 (95% CI = 1.191-3.654), P less than 0.01. Gene frequency of RsaI and AluI in the two groups was distributed with polymorphism. ERb gene polymorphism is associated with primary liver cancer. R allele may be the guard factor, and A allele may be its risk factor.