Genetic contribution of endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1 polymorphisms to liver fibrosis progression in patients with HCV infection

The endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase ERAP1 regulates innate and adaptive immune responses, trimming peptides and loading onto HLA class I molecules. Coding single nucleotide polymorphisms within ERAP1 are associated with autoimmune diseases, viral infections, and cancer development. Our purpose was to analyze the influence of ERAP1 variants on fibrogenesis in hepatitis C virus (HCV)–infected patients. A range of ERAP1 polymorphisms were genotyped in 722 unrelated Caucasian patients diagnosed with chronic HCV from two Spanish cohorts. Patients were classified according to their fibrosis stage. Paraffin-embedded tissue microarrays were constructed to assess ERAP1 expression (HCV = 38; alcoholic = 20) by immunohistochemistry. A statistical algorithm was applied to derive a fibrogenesis prediction model. The ERAP1 variants rs30187/T (K528, p c