Cluster of Differentiation 24 Polymorphism Has No Significant Association with Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection in the Chinese Han Population: A Family-Based Association Study.

OBJECTIVE

Studies have shown that cluster of differentiation (CD) 24 gene polymorphism is associated with several diseases. Among these, chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection has not been investigated. This study aimed to assess the function of CD24 in CHB.

METHODS

The study included 478 cases of CHB and 318 cases without CHB from 230 families that underwent genotyping. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was performed to assess the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) P170 of the CD24 gene. The detected genotypes were TT, CT, and CC. Then, family based-association analysis was carried out to investigate the association between CD24 gene polymorphism and susceptibility to CHB.

RESULTS

In the 478 patients with CHB, the frequencies of CD24 P170 T and C alleles were 35.5% and 64.5%, respectively, and the frequencies of CD24 P170 CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 39.3%, 50.4% and 10.3%, respectively. In a CD24 single-locus analysis by a family-based association test of P170 polymorphisms, T and C were not significantly associated with CHB in the additive (Z = 0.169, P = 0.866; Z = -0.169, P = 0.866, respectively), dominant (Z = 0.522, P = 0.602; Z = 0.428, P = 0.669, respectively), or recessive (Z = -0.428, P = 0.669; Z = -0.522, P = 0.602, respectively) models. Transmission-disequilibrium (TD) and sib-transmission disequilibrium (STD) tests revealed no excess of T or C alleles from heterozygous parents to their children with the disease or higher frequencies of these alleles in patients compared with their normal siblings (χ 2 = 0.06, P = 0.897).

CONCLUSION

The study findings suggest that the SNP P170 of CD24 has no significant association with susceptibility to the HB virus and related phenotypes in Chinese patients.