Abstract
Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) infection is associated with liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and eventually death. Genetic risk factors have been casted as predictors of the severity and progression of several CHC-associated liver diseases. PNPLA3 (rs738409), a novel genetic marker strongly associated with increased fat content in the liver. Nonetheless, recognition of an association between PNPLA3 rs73409 (C>G) and the severity of fibrosis in CHC has been inadequately studied.
Highlights
Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) infection is associated with liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and eventually death
In both healthy control and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients, PNPLA3 rs738409 genotype distribution was in hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
When PNPLA3 rs738409 genotype frequencies were stratified according to gender, the difference in genotype distribution was significantly statistically different between patients and healthy individuals in females (p=0.001) only but not in males (p=0.081; (Table 3))
Summary
Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) infection is associated with liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and eventually death. Genetic risk factors have been casted as predictors of the severity and progression of several CHC-associated liver diseases. Persistent HCV infection is associated with the development of several liver related morbidities such as liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular. The clinical outcome of chronic hepatitis C (CHC)-related liver diseases is highly variable [4]. The severity of liver diseases in CHC patients can be correlated with several risk factors such as male gender, old age, insulin resistance, high body mass index (BMI), chronic alcohol consumption, and most importantly viral factors (especially HCV genotype 4 in Middle East) [5,6,7,8].
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