Association of ulcerative colitis with FUT2 and FUT3 polymorphisms and their expression in Chinese patients / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the association of genetic polymorphism of fucosyltransferase (FUT) 2 and FUT3 and expression of Lewis antigen with ulcerative colitis (UC) in Chinese Zhejiang Han population.Methods We genotyped FUT2 (rs281377, rs1047781 and rs601338) and FUT3 (rs28362459, rs3745635 and rs3894326) in 485 UC patients and 580 healthy controls using SNaPshot. By immunohistochemistry method, we also evaluated expression of Lewis a and b antigens in the sigmoid colon of 10 UC patients and 10 patients with benign colonic polyps.Results The frequencies of mutant allele (A) and genotype (GA+AA) in FUT3 rs3745635 were higher in UC patients than in controls (P=0.016, 95%CI 1.339-1.699;P=0.038, 95%CI 1.330-1.742, respectively). Stratified analyses revealed that the frequencies of mutant allele (G) and genotype (TG+GG) of FUT3 rs28362459 were significantly lower in patients with extensive colitis than in those with distal colitis (P=0.001, 95%CI 0.567-0.786;P<0.001, 95%CI 0.503-0.742, respectively). Similar conclusions were drawn for the mutant allele (A) and genotype (GA+AA) of FUT3 rs3745635 in patients with extensive colitis compared to those with distal colitis (P=0.011, 95%CI 0.621-0.900;P=0.006, 95%CI 0.553-0.845, respectively). Although expression of Lewis b antigen in the sigmoid colon did not differ between UC patients and controls, Lewis a antigen expression was higher in the crypt epithelium of both inflammatory and non-inflammatory sigmoid colon of UC patients than in controls (P=0.028).Conclusion Polymorphisms of FUT3 and expression level of Lewis a antigen might be associated with UC.