Correlation of intestinal disaccharidase activities with the C/T-13910 variant and age.

AIM: To correlate the C/T(-13910) variant, associated with lactase persistence/non-persistence (adult-type hypolactasia) trait, with intestinal disaccharidase activities in different age groups of the adult population.

METHODS

Intestinal biopsies were obtained from 222 adults aged 18 to 83 years undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy because of unspecified abdominal complaints. The biopsies were assayed for lactase, sucrase and maltase activities and genotyped for the C/T(-13910) variant using PCR-minisequencing.

RESULTS

There was a significant correlation between lactase activity and the C/T(-13910) variant (P < 0.00001). The mean level of lactase activity among subjects with C/C(-13910) genotype was 6.86 +/- 0.35 U/g, with C/T(-13910) genotype 37.8 +/- 1.4 U/g, and with T/T(-13910) genotype 57.6 +/- 2.4 U/g protein, showing a trimodal distribution of this enzyme activity. Significant differences were also observed in maltase activities among individuals with different C/T(-13910) genotypes (P = 0.005). In contrast, in sucrase activity, no significant differences emerged between the C/T(-13910) genotypes (P = 0.14). There were no statistical differences in lactase (P = 0.84), sucrase (P = 0.18), or maltase activity (P = 0.24) among different age groups. In the majority (> 84%) of the patients with the C/C(-13910) genotype associated with lactase non-persistence, the lactase activity was less than 10 U/g protein.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrates a statistically significant correlation between the C/T(-13910) genotype and lactase activity and this correlation is not affected by age in adults but the cut-off value of 20 U/g protein used for the diagnosis of lactase non-persistence might be too high.