Objective: The study was designed to explore the association of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with VHL (rs779805), MTHFR (rs1801133) and APOE (rs8106822 and rs405509) polymorphisms, investigate the interactions among the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and explore roles of the interactions in the pathogenesis of RCC in Chinese Han population.
Methods: 81 RCC patients and 80 healthy controls were included in the study. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing methods were used in the analysis on the genotypes of APOE, VHL and MTHFR gene polymorphisms. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method was adopted to conduct gene-gene interaction analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were utilized to evaluate the correlation between gene-gene interactions and RCC risk.
Results: Significant correlations were found between RCC risk and 3 SNPs (rs8106822, rs779805 and rs1801133). Genotype AA and allele A of APOE rs8106822 were significantly associated with RCC susceptibility (OR=2.65, 95% CI=1.05-6.69). Meanwhile, we found that the frequencies of genotype GG and allele G were much higher in case group, compared with controls (P<0.05 for both) and they appeared to be risk factors for RCC (OR=2.90, 95% CI=1.22-6.87; OR=1.78, 95% CI=1.14-2.27). While, allele T of MTHFR rs1801133 could decrease the risk of RCC (OR=0.62, 95% CI=0.40-0.97). MDR analysis showed that gene-gene interactions among APOE, VHL and MTHFR SNPs were closely related with RCC susceptibility.
Conclusion: APOE, VHL and MTHFR gene polymorphisms were related to the risk of RCC. The interactions among APOE, VHL and MTHFR genes could increase the risk of RCC.
Keywords: APOE; MTHFR; RCC; VHL; gene-gene interaction; polymorphisms.