Analysis of Methylation and Expression Profiles of CPT1-A and APOE Genes in Patients with NAFLD

Analysis of Methylation and Expression Profiles of CPT1-A and APOE Genes in Patients with NAFLD

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of abnormal hepatic steatosis in the absence of alcohol abuse worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of promoter methylation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT1) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genes on the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: The promoter methylation of APOE and CPT-1A were
analyzed using a methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) in blood samples taken from 80 NAFLD individuals and 100 healthy controls. The expression levels of APOE and CPT- 1A were also assessed in 10 blood mRNA samples from NAFLD patients. These cases were compared to the blood samplesof healthy controls (n=10) with real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. Results: The percentage of methylation for CPT-1A gene was significant between normal individuals and patients. The APOE gene methylation was not significant between cases and controls. A statistically significant relationship was found for methylation of CPT-1A between cases and controls (p<0.001). The relative expression of CPT-1A and APOE mRNA in NAFLD blood was no significantly different in comparison of blood samples between healthy controls and cases. The present outcomes indicate that the methylation status of the CPT-1A gene has a significant function in the process of NAFLD and suggest further study with a large sample size for this reason.