Common ABCB4 and ABCB11 Genotypes Are Associated with Idiopathic Chronic Cholestasis in Adults

Pathogenic mutations in genes encoding the hepatocanalicular transporters ATP8B1, ABCB11 and ABCB4 are causative for progressive cholestatic liver disease in children. In adults, less severe variants such as the common ABCB4 c.711A>T polymorphism have been associated with intrahepatic cholestasis in pregnancy and elevated liver enzymes. Hence, our aim was to study the role of common polymorphisms in adult patients with chronic unexplained cholestasis.

Screening of outpatients of two university hospitals identified a cohort of 94 patients with chronic cholestasis of unknown origin after thorough exclusion of other causes. Genotyping was performed using TaqMan assays, and frequencies for the ABCB4 rs2109505 (c.711A>T), rs1202283 (c.504T>C), ABCB11 rs2287622 (p.A444V) and rs497692 (c.3084A>G) variants of the study cohort were compared to a cohort of 254 healthy controls.

The dominating symptoms of the patients were pruritus and jaundice, though the majority of them did not report symptoms at inclusion. Advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis was present in 11 patients (11.7%) only. Genotyping revealed the presence of the ABCB4 c.711A>T risk variant in 79 patients (84%), a frequency that is significantly (p = 0.037) higher than that in controls (71%). The ABCB11 p.A444V variant was also more frequent in cholestatic patients (p = 0.042).

The common ABCB4 c.711A>T and ABCB11 p.A444V polymorphisms are more prevalent in adult patients with idiopathic cholestasis than in healthy controls and may therefore represent risk factors for the development of chronic cholestatic liver disease.