N-acetyltransferase genotypes in the Portuguese population

Fast and slow acetylator phenotypes differ in their respective frequencies among different populations. A polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism based genotyping assay was used to determine the frequency of the most important NAT2 polymorphisms in a group of 128 Portuguese individuals. The results showed that slow acetylators represented 64.1% of the group, and the frequencies of NAT2*4, *5A, *5B, *5C, *6 and *7 alleles were 0.211, 0.031, 0.379, 0.023, 0.328 and 0.027, respectively. These values are similar to those presented in other studies in Caucasians. The data obtained may be useful in epidemiological studies of the influence of acetylator polymorphisms on carcinogenesis or other environmental caused diseases.