Opposite impact of Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase C677T and Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase A1298C gene polymorphisms on systemic inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene polymorphisms have been found to be related with many diseases. Systemic inflammation is now considered as a major predisposition factor for diseases including diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary arterial disease (CAD), stroke, and cancer. This study aimed to investigate whether systemic inflammation is a possible underlying pathogenesis for MTHFR gene polymorphism-related disease.

METHODS: A total of 292 patients were enrolled, and single nucleotide polymorphisms for MTHFR C667T and A1298C were genotyped. Systemic inflammation markers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were collected.

RESULTS: In our study population, MTHFR 677 variants had significant higher NLR level than MTHFR 677 wild type (3.77 ± 0.26 vs 3.06 ± 0.18, P = .028). Logistic regression analysis showed that MTHFR 677 variants were significantly associated with increased NLR level. MTHFR 1298 variants showed the opposite effects which tended to have lower level of NLR (3.21 ± 0.16 vs 3.79 ± 0.34, P = .087) and PLR (137.0 ± 4.8 vs 157.7 ± 9.4, P = .052) than MTHFR 1298 wild type. General linear model showed that there was no statistically significant interaction between MTHFR C667T and A1298C gene polymorphism on NLR or PLR.

CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C gene polymorphisms have opposite effect on systemic inflammation, and systemic inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis for diseases associated with MTHFR C667T gene polymorphism.