The Effect of Genetic Polymorphism in Response to Body Weight Reduction in Japanese Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background: weight loss as a result of lifestyle intervention is effective when treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We estimated the effects of rs738409 and rs6834314 variants in response to diet therapy in Japanese patients with NAFLD.

Methods: we analyzed the correlation between the change in liver stiffness and change in body weight in 140 patients administered diet therapy for 1-year, according to and genotypes.

Results: the bodyweight (BW) reduction rate was greater in patients with the genotype CC than CG and GG ( = 0.035). Change in liver stiffness measurement (LSM) was significantly associated with a change in BW in CG/GG (r = 0.279/0.381), but not in CC ( = 0.187). Change in LSM was correlated with change in BW only in patients with AG/GG (r = 0.425), but not the AA genotype ( = 0.069). A multivariate analysis identified that a change in LSM was correlated with a change in BW in carriers of AG/GG (B = 3.043, = 0.032), but not AA. The change in LSM of patients with a BW reduction of more than 7% (0.50) was significantly greater than that of patients with a BW reduction of less than 7% (0.83) ( = 0.038).

Conclusions: in Japanese patients with NAFLD, rs6834314 polymorphism is associated with the change in LSM by lifestyle intervention. The approach, including genetic assessments, may contribute to the establishment of appropriate therapeutic strategies to treat NAFLD.