Association of vitamin D-related gene polymorphisms with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure

Objective To investigate the expression of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of vitamin D-related genes in patients with hepatitis B-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) and its association with short-term prognosis of HBV-ACLF. Methods The patients with chronic hepatitis B who were admitted to Liver Diseases Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, from July 2012 to March 2018 were enrolled, and according to the presence or absence of acute-on-chronic liver failure during the course of the disease (n = 400) , they were divided into HBV-ACLF group (n = 122) and non-ACLF group (n = 278) . The clinical data and laboratory examination results were collected; peripheral blood samples were collected, and imLDRTM multiple SNP typing kit was used to determine the genotypes of the SNPs of vitamin D receptor (VDR) rs1544410 and rs2228570 and vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP) rs2282679. The patients in the HBV-ACLF group were followed up for 3 months to observe their survival. The association of vitamin D-related gene SNP with HBV-ACLF susceptibility and prognosis was analyzed. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was used to evaluate the representativeness of gene samples. The t-test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two groups. A logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the odds ratio of SNP in the development of HBV-ACLF. Results There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of VDR rs1544410 and rs2228570 and VDBP rs2282679 between the HBV-ACLF group and the non-ACLF group (all P > 0. 05) . In addition, there were also no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of VDR rs1544410 and rs2228570 and VDBP rs2282679 between the HBV-ACLF patients who survived and those who died (all P > 0. 05) . Conclusion SNPs of VDR rs1544410 and rs2228570 and VDBP rs2282679 are not associated with the development and short-term prognosis of HBV-ACLF.