ABSTRACT
Alcoholism is caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Findings obtained from several studies indicate that some tissue damage occurring in alcohol abusers is due to the generation of reactive oxygen species during the ethanol metabolism The objective of this study was to examine the associations between the polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase (GST) M1 and T1 genes and Korean male patients with alcoholism. We investigated the distribution of deletion of GSTM1 and GSTT1 in Korean male patients diagnosed with alcoholism (n=133) and Korean male control subject without alcoholism (n=91) with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. GSTM1 showed significant associations with alcoholism susceptibility (p=0.0002). But GSTT1 showed no significant associations (p=0.0948). In combined analysis, both gene deletion and GSTM1 deletion were associated with alcoholism (p<0.0001 and p<0.0150). These results suggest that GSTM1 gene deletion might play an important role in risk for alcoholism.