Association between the rs1129555 SNP and serum lipid profiles in the Maonan and Han populations.

The glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase mitochondrial gene () variant has been associated with serum lipid levels in the Eurpean ancestry, but little is known about such association in Chinese populations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the rs1129555 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and several environment factors with blood lipid profiles in the Guangxi Maonan and Han populations. A total of 720 individuals of Maonan nationality and 780 participants of Han nationality were randomly selected from our previous stratified randomized samples. Genotyping of the rs1129555 SNP was carried out using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique, and then confirmed by direct sequencing. The frequencies of C and T alleles were 72.85% and 27.15% in Maonan, and 65.19% and 34.81% in Han ( < 0.001); respectively. The frequencies of CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 51.53%, 42.36%, and 5.97% in Maonan, and 43.08%, 44.23%, and 12.69% in Han populations ( < 0.001). The T allele carriers had higher serum triglyceride (TG) in Han and higher low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in both Maonan and Han than the T allele non-carriers ( < 0.05-0.01). Gender subgroup analyses showed that the T allele carriers had higher TG levels in Han males ( < 0.05) and higher LDL-C levels in Maonan males but not in famales ( < 0.01). Serum lipid parameters were also associated with several environmental factors ( < 0.05-0.001). These findings suggest that racial/ethnic- and/or gender-specific association occurs between the rs1129555 variant and serum lipid parameters in our study populations.