Chronic pancreatitis (CP) may be caused by oxidative stress. An important source of
reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the methylglyoxal-derived formation of advanced glycation
endproducts (AGE). Methylglyoxal is detoxified by Glyoxalase I (GLO1). A reduction
in GLO1 activity results in increased ROS. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
of GLO1 have been linked to various inflammatory diseases. Here, we analyzed whether
common GLO1 variants are associated with alcoholic (ACP) and non-alcoholic CP (NACP).Using
melting curve analysis, we genotyped a screening cohort of 223 ACP, 218 NACP patients,
and 328 controls for 11 tagging SNPs defined by the SNPinfo LD TAG SNP Selection tool
and the functionally relevant variant rs4746. For selected variants the cohorts were
extended to up to 1,441 patient samples.In the ACP cohort, comparison of genotypes
for rs1937780 between patients and controls displayed an ambiguous result in the screening
cohort (p = 0.08). However, in the extended cohort of 1,441 patients no statistically
significant association was found for the comparison of genotypes (p = 0.11), nor
in logistic regression analysis (p = 0.214, OR 1.072, 95% CI 0.961-1.196). In the
NACP screening cohort SNPs rs937662, rs1699012, and rs4746 displayed an ambiguous
result when patients were compared to controls in the recessive or dominant model
(p = 0.08, 0.08, and 0.07, respectively). Again, these associations were not confirmed
in the extended cohorts (rs937662, dominant model: p = 0.07, logistic regression:
p = 0.07, OR 1.207, 95% CI 0.985-1.480) or in the replication cohorts for rs4746 (Germany,
p = 0.42, OR 1.080, 95% CI 0.673-1.124; France, p = 0.19, OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.76-1.06;
China, p = 0.24, OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.54) and rs1699012 (Germany, Munich; p = 0.279,
OR 0.903, 95% CI 0.750-1.087).Common GLO1 variants do not increase chronic pancreatitis
risk.
