Genotype announcement in a genetic polymorphism study for health checkup examinees at Nagoya University Hospital

On June 9, 2003, we started free genetic tests of eight polymorphisms for health checkup examinees who attended a basic course at Nagoya University Hospital. They were informed of their genotypes within four weeks after blood donation for research purposes. The genotypes were those of alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (ADH2) Arg47His, aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) Glu487Lys, NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) C609T, glutathione S transferase M1 (GSTM1), glutathione S-transferase T1 (GSTT1), interleukin-1B (IL-1B) C-31T, and tumor necrosis factor A (TNF-A) T-1031C, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) Ins/Del. In the first three months, 227 (89.4%) out of 254 examinees participated in the free tests, having been informed of the research aims, after which they consented to our use of research data. To date, there have been no complaints from the participants, indicating that the announcement of polymorphism genotypes may be accepted differently from that of hereditary disease genotypes.