<i>MERTK</i> rs4374383 A carriers had a lower risk of liver fibrosis progression than G carriers, supporting the hypothesis that this SNP seems to have a critical role in the pathogenesis of liver disease in HCV-infected patients.
We evaluated the associations between the PNPLA3 (rs738409), RNF7 (rs16851720), MERTK (rs4374383) and PCSK7 (rs236918) variants and liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in a series of consecutive patients recruited at the Department of Gastroenterology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Hospital, during the period 2012-2015.
Homozygosity for a common non-coding rs4374383 G>A polymorphism in MERTK (myeloid-epithelial-reproductive tyrosine kinase) has been associated with the protection against fibrosis progression in chronic hepatitis C. The main study objective was to assess whether MERTK AA genotype influences liver fibrosis, and secondarily MERTK expression in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).