Organic anion transporting polypeptide-1B1 haplotypes in Chinese patients

Aim: To detect 388G > A and 521T > C variant alleles in the organic anion transporting polypeptide-1B1 (OATP1B1, encoding gene SLCO1B1) gene. Methods: One hundred and eleven healthy volunteers were screened for OATP1B1 alleles in our study. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to identify the 388G > A polymorphism and a 1-step tetra-primer method was developed for the determination of 521T > C mutation. Results: The frequencies of the 388G > A and 521T > C variant alleles in the Chinese population were 73.4% and 14.0%, respectively. The frequencies of the SLCO1B1*1b and *15 haplotypes were 59.9% and 14.0%, respectively. Conclusion: The SLCO1B1*1b and SLCO1B1*15 variants are relatively common in the Chinese population. Their frequencies are similar to that in the Japanese, but significantly different from that in Caucasians and blacks.