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Men who drank alcohol whose fathers had alcoholic cirrhosis/liver disease were found to have an increased risk for cirrhosis

In a new study, researchers found that men who drink and had a father who had alcohol problems or died from liver disease had increased odds for developing cirrhosis.

“This is the first and largest prospective genome wide association study in alcoholic cirrhosis," Devanshi Seth, PhD, principal scientist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Centenary Institute in Australia, said in a press release. “The unique feature of our study is its ability to evaluate genome-wide for effects of gene variants in thousands of drinkers in order to identify genetic factors that increase the risk for developing cirrhosis.”

Devanshi Seth

Seth and colleagues enrolled 859 participants from liver or alcohol treatment clinics who drank alcohol and collected data that detailed the patient’s alcohol history and their parent’s alcohol history, as well as blood samples. Male patients drank an average of at least 80 g of alcohol per day and female patients averaged at least 50 g per day, for at least 10 years, according to the research.

This study is a preliminary analysis for researchers to test the feasibility of the study design for recruitment across multiple centres internationally and to determine whether the recruitment strategy and criteria for defining cases and controls is valid, according to the research. More participants are being recruited across the US, Australia, France, among others, for further studies.

Overall, 580 of the 859 participants had alcoholic cirrhosis (442 male and 138 female) and 279 drank alcohol, but did not have any signs of liver disease (205 male and 74 female). The cases and controls had similar durations of excessive drinking, but was it more excessive in the patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Men consumed more alcohol than women in both the case and control groups.

All participants were asked whether parents had any alcohol problems or if either one had or died from liver disease as a result of any alcohol problems. More fathers were reported to have an alcohol problem compared with mothers. Forty-three percent of cases reported having a father with alcohol problems compared with 50% of controls (P = .061). Among the cases, 15.8% reported a mother who had alcohol problems compared with 23% among the controls (P = .0078). More cases reported having a father die from liver disease compared with the controls (24.5% vs. 11.4%; P = .0055) and a mother die from liver disease compared with controls (18.4% vs. 15.3%; P = .653).

“We report that through the establishment of our international GenomALC Consortium, it has proven feasible to recruit and collect data and samples from chronic high-risk drinkers for our overall aim to identify genetic loci for risk of [alcoholic cirrhosis],” the researchers concluded.

“We don't yet know which genetic factors are the most important risks for the development of alcoholic cirrhosis," Seth said. “The findings in this paper are based on clinical/phenotype data only, and we will perform genetic testing in these samples once our collection is complete. We expect that the genetic information that will be generated in this study will provide the first 'genetic architecture' of alcoholic liver cirrhosis and identify risk factors.

Seth added: “Our findings of increased risk of cirrhosis among men whose fathers had cirrhosis will enable clinicians to counsel/caution selected patients about an increased risk of cirrhosis and provide treatment options to those who continue to drink.” – by Melinda Stevens

Disclosure: Healio.com/Hepatology was unable to verify relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.