Association of genetic variants in Sirt1 and Nrf2 gene with metabolic syndrome risk in a Chinese Han population

Abstract Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex of interrelated risk factors including central adiposity, raised blood pressure, hyperglycemia, elevated triglyceride levels and low high-density lipoprotein. Association studies have reported several genetic variants in Sirt1 gene and Nrf2 gene (Sirt1 rs7895833 A>G, Sirt1 rs2273773 C>T and Nrf2 rs6721961 C>A ) with contributions to T2DM susceptibility as well as some glycemic and metabolic traits. However, little is known about contributions of these three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to above phenotypes in Chinese. Our study recruited 141 individuals with MetS and 549 individuals without MetS to investigate association between three SNPs of Sirt1, Nrf2 gene and MetS risk in a Chinese Han population using PCR-CTPP method. The result showed that the AA genotype of Sirt1 rs7895833was 2.41 times higher in MetS group than those of AG genotype（P=0.038）and 1.94 times higher than those of GG genotype（P=0.016）. he serum level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and HOMA-IR were significantly higher (P<0.05) in AA genotype of Sirt1 rs7895833 compared with AG and GG genotype in general population. And the serum level of total cholesterol in AA genotype was lower (P=0.033) than other two genotypes. However, the genotype frequency of Sirt1 rs2273773 and Nrf2 rs6721961 in MetS group were not significantly different from that in the control subjects, and those two genetic variants were not correlated with metabolic traits. These results underscore the contributions of SNPs of Sirt1 rs7895833 to MetS susceptibility in Chinese as well as glycemic and metabolic traits.