Role of polymorphic bile salt export pump (BSEP, ABCB11) transporters in anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury in a Chinese cohort

Evidence indicates that the polymorphisms in bile salt export pump (BSEP, encoded by ABCB11) may play an important role in the development of anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury (ATDILI) and we aim to investigate the association between genetic variants of ABCB11 and the risk of ATDILI in a Chinese cohort. A total of 89 tuberculosis patients with ATDILI and 356 matched ATDILI -free patients constituted cases and controls. Genetic polymorphisms of ABCB11 were determined by TaqMan single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assay. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was estimated by conditional logistic regression model. There were no significant differences in genotype frequencies of ABCB11 between cases and controls. In the subgroup analysis, polymorphisms of rs2287616 were found to be associated with cholestatic/mixed pattern of liver injury under dominant and addictive model (OR = 3.84, 95% CI:1.16–12.75, P = 0.028 and OR = 2.51, 95% CI:1.12–5.62, P = 0.025, respectively), however the significance disappeared after Bonferroni correction. This study suggested that genetic variants of ABCB11 gene might contribute to anti-tuberculosis drug-induced cholestatic liver injury in Chinese patients. Studies in larger, varied populations are required to confirm these findings.