ABO blood group and risk of newly diagnosed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A case-control study in Han Chinese population

Background
ABO blood group has been associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, whether ABO blood group is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains unknown. The present study aimed to clarify this issue.
Methods
A hospital-based case-control study was performed in southwestern China. A total of 583 newly ultrasound-diagnosed NAFLD cases and 2068 controls were included. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of developing NAFLD were calculated by multivariate logistic regression. A propensity score was developed for adjustment and matching.
Results
The proportions of blood groups A, B, AB and O were 31%, 26%, 8% and 35%, respectively. Non-O blood groups were found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of NAFLD (the fully adjusted OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.19, 1.91); moreover, compared with blood group O, the fully adjusted ORs of developing NAFLD were 1.50 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.99) for blood group A, 1.59 (95% CI: 1.19, 2.14) for blood group B, and 1.37 (95% CI: 0.86, 2.18) for blood group AB. Similar results were obtained in both propensity-score-adjusted and propensity-score-matched analyses. No evidence of significant effect modification for the association of ABO blood group with the risk of NAFLD was found (all Pinteraction>0.05).
Conclusions
Non-O blood groups are significantly associated with an increased risk of NAFLD. Our findings provide some epidemiological evidence for a possible role of ABO glycosyltransferase in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. However, these findings need to be validated by future studies.

背景
ABO血型已被证实与心血管疾病及癌症存在关联。然而，ABO血型是否与非酒精性脂肪性肝病（nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD）相关，目前仍尚不明确。本研究旨在阐明这一学术问题。
方法
本研究在中国西南部开展了一项基于医院的病例对照研究，共纳入583例经超声新诊断的非酒精性脂肪性肝病病例，以及2068名对照。通过多因素logistic回归分析，计算非酒精性脂肪性肝病发病的校正比值比（adjusted odds ratios, ORs）与95%置信区间（confidence intervals, CIs）；同时构建倾向评分模型用于校正与匹配。
结果
研究人群中A、B、AB、O型血的占比分别为31%、26%、8%与35%。分析显示，非O型血与非酒精性脂肪性肝病发病风险升高存在显著关联（完全校正后OR=1.51，95%CI：1.19~1.91）；相较于O型血，A型血、B型血、AB型血发生非酒精性脂肪性肝病的完全校正OR值分别为1.50（95%CI：1.13~1.99）、1.59（95%CI：1.19~2.14）以及1.37（95%CI：0.86~2.18）。倾向评分校正分析与倾向评分匹配分析均得到了一致结果。未发现ABO血型与非酒精性脂肪性肝病发病风险间存在显著的效应修饰作用（所有交互P值均>0.05）。
结论
非O型血与非酒精性脂肪性肝病发病风险升高显著相关。本研究结果为ABO糖基转移酶可能参与非酒精性脂肪性肝病的发病机制提供了一定的流行病学证据，但上述发现仍需未来研究进一步验证。