GENETIC-POLYMORPHISM OF CYTOCHROME P-4502E1 AND MITOCHONDRIAL ALDEHYDE DEHYDROGENASE IN A KOREAN POPULATION

Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) is mainly responsible for the oxidation of acetaldehyde generated during alcohol oxidation in v ivo. Cytochrome P-4502E1 (CYP2E1), a liver microsomal enzyme, also met abolizes acetaldehyde and ethanol. Genetic polymorphism of ALDH2 and C YP2E1 was investigated among 481 Korean adults. A new restriction frag ment-length polymorphism method was developed to determine the genotyp e of the ALDH2 alleles. This method proved to be simpler and faster th an the hybridization method using allele-specific oligonucleotide prob es and polymerase chain reaction-directed mutagenesis. The allele freq uencies of ALDH2(1) and ALDH2(2) were 0.840 and 0.160, respectively. T his allele frequency of ALDH2(2) is less than in Japanese people. Gene tic polymorphism of CYP2E1 was investigated using polymerase chain rea ction and restriction fragment-length polymorphism. The estimated alle le frequencies for c1 and c2 were 0.808 and 0.192.