Little is known about the association between the muscle Ras (MRAS) gene rs6782181 polymorphism and serum lipid levels. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between the MRAS rs6782181 polymorphism and serum lipid levels in the Mulao and Han populations. A total of 632 subjects of Han and 629 unrelated subjects of Mulao nationalities were randomly selected from our previous stratified randomized samples. Genotypes of the MARS rs6782181 polymorphism were determined via polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. The subjects with GG genotype had higher serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and apolipoprotein (Apo) B levels in Han, and higher serum TC and LDL-C levels in Mulao than the subjects with AA/AG genotypes (P < 0.05-0.01). Subgroup analyses showed that the subjects with GG genotype had higher TC, TG, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL-C, ApoAI and ApoB in Han males, lower ApoAI and the ratio of ApoAI to ApoB in Han females; and higher LDL-C levels in Mulao males but not in Mulao females than the subjects with AG/AA genotypes. The association of the MARS rs6782181 polymorphism and serum lipid levels is different between the Mulao and Han populations, or between males and females in the both ethnic groups. There may be an ethnic- and/or sex-specific association between the MRAS rs6782181 polymorphism and serum lipid levels in our study populations.
Keywords: 3q22.3; MRAS; Muscle Ras; rs6782181; serum lipid level; single nucleotide polymorphism.