High expression of FAM13A was associated with increasing the liver cirrhosis risk

Liver cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease, and it may be caused by multiple influences of both genetic and environmental factors. Family with sequence similarity 13 member A (FAM13A) has been previously associated with lung function in several lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, lung cancer, and pulmonary fibrosis. The aim of this study was to explore whether FAM13A polymorphisms confer susceptibility to liver cirrhosis.

Our findings demonstrated that the high expression of FAM13A may be associated with an increased risk of liver cirrhosis.

FAM13A expression was evaluated in liver cirrhosis tissues by immunohistochemistry staining. The relationship between FAM13A gene polymorphism and liver cirrhosis was determined by association analysis. The genotypes were assessed in the Agena MassARRAY platform. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-squared test/Fisher's exact test, genetic model analysis, and haplotype analysis.

The results showed that the expression of FAM13A is obvious higher in the liver cirrhosis tissue cells than in the normal liver tissue cells. Moreover, association analysis results indicated that the minor allele "A" of rs3017895 was positively associated with high risk of liver cirrhosis in the allele model by the chi-squared test (OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.03-1.68, p = 0.028). Logistic regression analyses revealed that the risk of liver cirrhosis was significantly higher in subjects with the G/A-G/G genotype of rs3017895 than those with A/A genotype under the dominant model and log additive model, and the T/A-A/A genotype of rs1059122 was positively associated with higher liver cirrhosis than T/T genotype based on dominant model respectively. In addition, haplotype analysis showed that the G-A haplotype of rs3017895-rs1059122 of the FAM13A gene significantly increased the risk of liver cirrhosis.