Investigation of KCNJ11 Gene Variant (rs 5219) in Patients with Diabetes after Liver Transplantation

The incidence of diabetes in liver transplant recipients is one of the common problems among these patients witha negative effect on the success of the transplant and the patient's life. Post Transplant Diabetes Mellitus (PTDM) has many similarities with type 2 diabetes from pathophysiplogical, clinical, and genetic viewpoints... One of the genotypes involved in PTDM is KCNJ11 (rs 5219) that has role in beta-cell function and has regulator effect on ATP sensitive K channels. The purpose of this study is to review the relation between this polymorphism and diabetes after liver transplantation in an Iranian population. This is a case-control study on 120 patients receiving liver transplant, including 60 patients with PTDM and 60 patients without PTDM. White blood cell samples were selected from the cell bank of organ transplantation research centre in Namazi Hospital from patients who had undergone liver transplantation during the years 2008 and2012. Frequency of genotypes in this population was determined by PCR-RFLP method. To express the results we used distribution indices and parametric statistical tests. Statistical analysis shows that there is a significant difference between the genotype and the allele frequencies of the two groups of case and control.. KK genotype (P=0.001; 95%CI (1.60-7.6); OR=1.19 increases the risk of PTDM. Our study shows that there is a relation between the incidence of PTDM and sex, age, prednisolone dosage, KCNJ11 polymorphism, and KK genotype.