We evaluated the impact of the rs17618244 G>A β-Klotho (KLB) variant on liver damage in 249 pediatric patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and the association of this variant with the expression of hepatic and soluble KLB.
<i>KLB</i> rs7674434 and rs12152703 had associations with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (<i>P</i> = 0.03 and <i>P</i> = 0.04, respectively) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (<i>P</i> = 0.03 and <i>P</i> = 0.02, respectively) levels in all subjects, but the associations were especially strong with ALT in the NAFLD group (<i>P</i> = 0.005 and <i>P</i> = 0.008, respectively).