MFGE8 polymorphisms are significantly associated with metabolism-related indicators rather than metabolic syndrome in Chinese people: A nested case–control study

The correlation between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (MFGE8) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and metabolism-related indicators are limited. The present study explored the relation in Chinese adults. We conducted a nested case–control study based on the Rural Chinese Cohort Study including 408 people with MetS and 408 controls matched by baseline sex, age (±2 years), marital status, and residence village. Four polymorphisms were selected and genotyped by using the SNPscan Genotyping system. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the association of MFGE8 polymorphisms with MetS incidence, and linear regression was used to assess the association with metabolism-related indicators in controls. We found no significant association of MFGE8 SNPs with MetS incidence or systolic blood pressure, or triglycerides level, or fasting plasma glucose (P > 0.05). However, MFGE8 rs4932450 was negatively associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level under the dominant model (β = −0.0218, P = 0.007) and the additive model (β = −0.0175, P = 0.012) and positively associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) under the recessive model (β = 4.8848, P = 0.011). The rs3784751 SNP was associated with increased waist circumference (WC) in controls (β = 0.0307, P = 0.028). MFGE8 polymorphisms were not associated with MetS but were related to DBP, HDL-C level, and WC in Chinese adults. •This is the first study to investigate an association of MFGE8 SNPs with MetS and metabolism-related indicators.•We used the nested case–control study design to assess the relation.•The results suggested a positive relation between MFGE8 SNPs and DBP and WC and a negative relation with HDL-C level.