Alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase polymorphisms in Japanese patients withalcohol-induced chronic pancreatitis

In order to clarify the genetic factors in alcohol-related chronic pancreat itis among Japanese, we determined the genotype of two major alcohol-metabo lizing enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase(ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH ). The restriction fragment-length polymorphisms of the ADH2 and the ALDH2 genes were analyzed in 47 normal subjects and 31 patients with alcoholic pa ncreatitis. No significant difference between the patient and control group s was found in the ADH2 genotypes. A significant genetic difference between the two groups was found in the ALDH2 locus. The frequency of the ALDH2*1 allele was found to be 0.681 and that of the ALDH2*2 allele was 0.319 in th e controls, while these values were 0.935 and 0.065 in the patients, respec tively. Most of the patients (27 of 31) were ALDH2*1/2*1, only four were AL DH2*1/2*2, and none of the patients were ALDH2*2/2*2. These results indicat e that genetic polymorphism of the ALDH2 gene influences the risk of develo ping alcoholic pancreatitis in Japanese.