Association of the 3′ untranslated region polymorphisms of HLA-G with susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection in the Chinese population

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health problem. Several previous studies have addressed the role of host single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HCV infection. SNPs in the regulatory region of the human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) gene play an important role in several diseases. The objective of this study is to determine the association of HLA-G 3′untranslated region (UTR) polymorphisms with the susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C infection in the Chinese population. HLA-G 3′ UTR polymorphisms, which include 14-bp Ins/Del (rs371194629), +3003T/C (rs1707), +3010C/G (rs1710), +3027 A/C (rs17179101), +3035C/T (rs17179108), +3142 G/C (rs1063320), +3187 A/G (rs9380142) and + 3196C/G (rs1610696), were analyzed in 246 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection and 294 healthy individuals. The alleles, genotypes, and haplotypes were compared between chronic hepatitis C-infected subjects and controls using chi-square tests and logistic regression models. After a correction of multiple comparisons by the false discovery rate (FDR), the allele frequency of + 3196C, genotype frequencies of + 3187 AA and + 3196CC and frequency of the UTR-3 haplotype were significantly higher in the patients than in the control group (P < 0.05), whereas the frequencies of UTR-1 and UTR-2 haplotypes were significantly lower in the patients than in the control group (P < 0.05). After a correction of multiple comparisons by FDR, UTR-2 and UTR-3 maintained significant associations with chronic hepatitis C. This study indicates that HLA-G 3′UTR polymorphisms are associated with the susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C infection in the Chinese population. HLA-G 3′UTR may play an important role in risk modulation toward HCV infection.