Genetic association analyses of fast plasma glucose level in pre-menopausal Chinese women: potential interaction between osteocalcin and oestrogen receptor α.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels are usually tightly regulated within a narrow physiologic range. Variation of FPG levels is clinically important and is strongly heritable. Several lines of evidence suggest the importance of the oestrogen receptor α (ER-α) and osteocalcin (also known as BGP, for bone Gla protein) in determining FPG; however, whether their polymorphisms are associated with FPG variation is not well understood. AIM: To investigate whether ER-a PvuII and BGP HindIII genetic polymorphisms and their potential interaction are associated with FPG variation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study subjects were 328 unrelated pre-menopausal Chinese women aged 21 years and over (mean age ± SD, 33.2 ± 5.9 years), with an average FPG of 4.92 (SD = 0.81). All subjects were genotyped at the ER-α PvuII and BGP HindIII loci using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). RESULTS: The ER-α PvuII genotypes were significantly associated with FPG (p = 0.007). In addition, a significant interaction was observed of the ER-α PvuII polymorphism with BGP HindIII polymorphism on FPG variation (p = 0.013), although the BGP HindIII polymorphism was not shown to be individually associated with FPG. CONCLUSION: The PvuII polymorphism of the ER-α gene and its potential interaction with the HindIII polymorphism of the BGP gene were associated with FPG in pre-menopausal Chinese women.