Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an increasing global health concern defined by excessive hepatic fat content in the absence of excessive alcohol consumption.
Objective: Given the pivotal role of insulin resistance in NAFLD, we hypothesized that insulin (INS) and insulin receptor (INSR) gene polymorphisms may be associated with NAFLD risk.
Methods: A total of 312 subjects, including 153 cases with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 159 controls were enrolled in this case-control study. Four polymorphisms in INS (rs3842752, rs689) and INSR (rs1052371, rs1799817) genes were genotyped using PCR-RFLP method.
Results: The cases with NAFLD were older and had higher BMI, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, as well as higher serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and gamma glutamyl transferase than the controls (P<0.001). The "TT" genotype of INSR rs1799817 compared with "CC" genotype occurred more frequently in the controls than the cases with NAFLD and the difference remained significant after adjustment for confounding factors (P=0.018; OR=0.10, 95%CI=0.02-0.76). However, no significant difference was found for INS rs3842752, INS rs689, and INSR rs1052371 gene polymorphisms between the cases with NAFLD and the controls either before or after adjustment for the confounders.
Conclusion: These findings corroborate the hypothesis that genetic polymorphisms related to insulin resistance play a role in NAFLD susceptibility. Specifically, the INSR rs1799817 "TT" genotype had a protective effect for NAFLD. However, our results remain to be validated in other studies.