Analysis of Glutathione S-transferase M1 and Glutathione S-transferase T1 gene polymorphisms suggests age-related relationships in a Northern Italian Population

The present work attempts to determine the distribution of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotype and allele frequencies in a sample of northern Italian population, and to examine the age-related association of these polymorphisms. The frequencies of the deleted GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes were 0.357 and 0.169, respectively. GSTT1 null-genotype frequency found in this work further confirms data obtained in previous studies of Italian populations, while for GSTM1 deletion our sample showed a significantly lower-frequency value with respect to other Italian and European populations, with exception of the Greek. No significant differences occurred between men and women in the frequency of each gene, which could suggest that, in the studied sample, there were no sex differences in susceptibility to diseases and in detoxifying enzymes such as GSTs. In order to analyze the relationship between GSTT1 and GSTM1 gene polymorphisms and age, the sample was subdivided into four age groups: 1-30 years (n = 101); 31-50 years (n = 160); 51-79 years (n = 144) and 80-100 years (n = 58). This age-related analysis showed a decreasing gradient of GSTs null genotypes between younger and older groups, with the 80-100 age group showing a significantly lower frequency of GSTT1 null, GSTM1 null and GSTT1/GSTM1 double null genotypes with respect to the younger group.