Impact of CCL2 and Its Receptor CCR2 Gene Polymorphism in North Indian Population: A Comparative Study in Different Ethnic Groups Worldwide

IL-17A, MCP-1, CCR-2, and ABCA1 polymorphisms in children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

OBJECTIVE

The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children has risen significantly, owing to the worldwide childhood obesity epidemic in the last two decades. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is closely linked to sedentary lifestyle, increased body mass index, and visceral adiposity. In addition, individual genetic variations also have a role in the development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the gene polymorphisms of MCP-1 (-2518 A/G) (rs1024611), CCR-2 (190 G/A) (rs1799864), ABCA1 (883 G/A) (rs4149313), and IL-17A (-197 G/A) (rs2275913) in obese Turkish children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

METHODS

The study recruited 186 obese children aged 10-17 years, including 101 children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and 85 children without non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Anthropometric measurements, insulin resistance, a liver panel, a lipid profile, liver ultrasound examination, and genotyping of the four variants were performed.

RESULTS

No difference was found between the groups in respect to age and gender, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, or body fat ratio. In addition to the elevated ALT levels, AST and GGT levels were found significantly higher in the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease group compared to the non non-alcoholic fatty liver disease group (p<0.05). The A-allele of IL-17A (-197 G/A) (rs2275913) was associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (odds ratio [OR] 2.05, 95% confidence interval: 1.12-3.77, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study suggest that there may be an association between IL-17A (-197 G/A) (rs2275913) polymorphism and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease development in obese Turkish children.

Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 promotes the proliferation and invasion of osteosarcoma cells and upregulates the expression of AKT

Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) is an important immune factor, which may be important in cancer progression by promoting proliferation, invasion, metastasis and the tumor microenvironment. Previous studies have demonstrated that CCL2 affects the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells via the RANKL signaling pathway. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. To investigate the role of CCL2 in osteosarcoma cells, MTT, spheroid forming, wound healing and transwell assays were performed to examine the proliferation and invasion abilities of the osteosarcoma cells. It was revealed that the high-grade osteosarcoma cells exhibited increased expression levels of CCL2 compared with the low-grade osteosarcoma cells (P<0.001). Furthermore, knockdown of CCL2 decreased the proliferation and invasion abilities of the osteosarcoma cells (P<0.01). These results suggested that the expression of CCL2 is high in high-grade osteosarcoma cells and promotes the proliferation and invasion of osteosarcoma cells.