The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of two polymorphisms in Brazilian patients with biopsy-proven simple steatosis or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH): -493 G/T in the MTP gene, which codes the protein responsible for transferring triglycerides to nascent apolipoprotein B, and -129 C/T in the GCLC gene, which codes the catalytic subunit of glutamate-cystein ligase in the formation of glutathione.
Lipoprotein metabolism mediates the association of MTP polymorphism with beta-cell dysfunction in healthy subjects and in nondiabetic normolipidemic patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.