Parental History of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and PNPLA3 Polymorphism Increase the Risk of Severe Stages of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background & Aims In non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the influence of parental history of type 2 diabetes (T2D) allied to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the offspring is not known. We aimed to investigate the impact of the parental history of T2D, PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 polymorphisms in liver steatosis and fibrosis. Methods This was a case–control study involving the offspring of T2D patients and controls without a parental history of T2D. Participants underwent clinical and laboratory evaluation, transient elastography (TE) by Fibroscan ® (Echosens, Fr) and genotyping for PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 . Multivariate logistic regression evaluated the influence of parental history of T2D on liver steatosis and fibrosis, controlled for age, gender, metabolic traits and SNPs. Results 161 T2D offspring and 78 controls, 10–46 years old, were included. The offspring of T2D had higher prevalences of obesity, T2D, arterial hypertension and sedentarism. Parental history of T2D was associated with fibrosis ≥ F2 (OR 8.89, CI 95% 1.09–72.01, p = 0.041) after adjustment for age, gender, metabolic traits and SNPs. PNPLA3 GG genotype was independently associated with steatosis ≥ S1 (OR 8.15, CI 95% 1.93–34.38, p = 0.004) and fibrosis ≥ F2 (OR 4.31, CI 95% 1.11–16.61, p = 0.034). Conclusions The offspring of T2D patients present a worse metabolic profile and the parental history of T2D confers an increased likelihood of hepatic fibrosis, independent of metabolic factors. PNPLA3 homozygous GG, but not TM6SF2 genotypes, also impacts on this phenotype.