Interaction between ELMO1 gene polymorphisms and environment factors on susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in Chinese Han population

BACKGROUND: The association of diabetic nephropathy (DN) risk with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within Engulfment and Cell Motility 1 (ELMO1) gene and gene–environment synergistic effect have not been extensively examined in, therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the association between multiple SNPs in ELMO1 gene, and the relationship between gene–environment synergy effect and the risk of DN. METHODS: Genotyping for 4 SNPs was performed with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and following restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. Hardy–Weinberg balance of the control group was tested by SNPstats (online software: http://bioinfo.iconologia.net/snpstats). The best combination of four SNPs of ELMO1 gene and environmental factors was screened by GMDR model. Logistic regression was used to calculating the OR values between different genotypes of ELMO1 gene and DN. RESULTS: The rs741301-G allele and the rs10255208-GG genotype were associated with an increased risk of DN risk, adjusted ORs (95% CI) were 1.75 (1.19–2.28) and 1.41 (1.06–1.92), respectively, both p-values were < 0.001. We also found that the others SNPs-rs1345365 and rs7782979 were not significantly associated with susceptibility to DN. GMDR model found a significant gene–alcohol drinking interaction combination (p = 0.0107), but no significant gene–hypertension interaction combinations. Alcohol drinkers with rs741301-AG/GG genotype also have the highest DN risk, compared to never drinkers with rs741301-AA genotype, OR (95% CI) 3.52 (1.93–4.98). CONCLUSIONS: The rs741301-G allele and the rs10255208-GG genotype, gene–environment interaction between rs741301 and alcohol drinking were all associated with increased DN risk.