Heterozygous carriage of the alpha1-antitrypsin Pi*Z variant increases the risk to develop liver cirrhosis

Objective Homozygous alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency increases the risk for developing cirrhosis, whereas the relevance of heterozygous carriage remains unclear. Hence, we evaluated the impact of the two most relevant AAT variants (' Pi* Z' and ' Pi* S'), present in up to 10% of Caucasians, on subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or alcohol misuse. Design We analysed multicentric case-control cohorts consisting of 1184 people with biopsy-proven NAFLD and of 2462 people with chronic alcohol misuse, both cohorts comprising cases with cirrhosis and controls without cirrhosis. Genotyping for the Pi* Z and Pi* S variants was performed. Results T he Pi* Z variant presented in 13.8% of patients with cirrhotic NAFLD but only in 2.4% of counterparts without liver fibrosis (p< 0.0001). Accordingly, the Pi* Z variant increased the risk of NAFLD subjects to develop cirrhosis (adjusted OR=7.3 (95% CI 2.2 to 24.8)). Likewise, the Pi* Z variant presented in 6.2% of alcohol misusers with cirrhosis but only in 2.2% of alcohol misusers without significant liver injury (p< 0.0001). Correspondingly, alcohol misusers carrying the Pi* Z variant were prone to develop cirrhosis (adjusted OR=5.8 (95% CI 2.9 to 11.7)). In contrast, the Pi* S variant was not associated with NAFLDrelated cirrhosis and only borderline with alcohol-related cirrhosis (adjusted OR=1.47 (95% CI 0.99 to 2.19)). Conclusion T he Pi* Z variant is the hitherto strongest single nucleotide polymorphism-based risk factor for cirrhosis in NAFLD and alcohol misuse, whereas the Pi* S variant confers only a weak risk in alcohol misusers. As 2%-4% of Caucasians are Pi* Z carriers, this finding should be considered in genetic counselling of affected individuals.