CAJ | 학술논문

AIM: To study the role of an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the pepsinogen C (PGC) gene, an effective marker for terminal differentiation of the stomach mucosa, in the susceptibility to the development of gastric lesions.METHODS: The study was performed with 99 samples of known gastric lesions and 127 samples without evidence of neoplastic disease. PCR was employed and the 6 polymorphic alleles were amplified: Allele 1 (510 bp), Allele 2 (480bp), Allele 3/4 (450/460 bp), Allele 5 (400 bp) and Allele 6(310 bp).RESULTS: Our results revealed that Allele 6 carriers seemed to have protection against the development of any gastric lesion (OR = 0.34; P＜0.001), non-dysplastic lesions associated with gastric adenocarcinoma such as atrophy or intestinal metaplasia (OR = 0.28; P ＜ 0.001) or invasive GC (OR = 0.39; P = 0.004).CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that the Allele 6 carrier status has a protective role in the development of gastric lesions, probably due to its association with higher expression of PGC. Moreover, the frequency of Allele 6 carriers in the control group is far higher than that obtained in Asian populations, which might represent a genetic gap between Caucasian and Asian populations.