Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2020; 8(18): 4017-4021
Published online Sep 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i18.4017
Relationship between granulomatous lobular mastitis and methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphism
Qing-Ran Lei, Xin Yang, Chun-Mei Miao, Jin-Chang Wang, Yue Yang
Qing-Ran Lei, Xin Yang, Chun-Mei Miao, Jin-Chang Wang, Yue Yang, Department of Breast, The First People's Hospital of Kunming, Kunming 650031, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Lei QR, Yang X, Miao CM, Wang JC and Yang Y wrote, edited and proofread the manuscript.
Supported by the Xishan District Science and Technology Plan Project of Kunming.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by Ethics Committee of The First Hospital of Kunming.
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data available.
STROBE statement: The manuscript has been prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yue Yang, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Breast, The First People's Hospital of Kunming, No. 504 Qingnian Road, Kunming 650031, Yunnan Province, China. yangyue_2018@sina.com
Received: June 16, 2020
Peer-review started: June 16, 2020
First decision: July 25, 2020
Revised: August 5, 2020
Accepted: August 15, 2020
Article in press: August 15, 2020
Published online: September 26, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Granulomatous lobular mastitis is a chronic disease of the breast. Its clinical and radiological features are similar to breast cancer, which makes its diagnosis and treatment complicated. To date, there is no obviously effective treatment for it because its etiology and pathogenesis remain unclear. Several potential reasons include autoimmunity, hormonal disorders, gene polymorphisms, etc. For polymorphisms, the relationship between common variants of MTHFR, e.g., 677T and 1298C, and granulomatous lobular mastitis was not fully understood.

Research motivation

Identification of the pathogenic genes for granulomatous lobular mastitis will aid in the diagnosis of this disorder by using gene testing. In addition, it will help in the development of targeted therapy, which will allow for better clinical outcomes.

Research objectives

This study aimed to analyze the association between MTHFR gene polymorphism and granulomatous lobular mastitis.

Research methods

Participants were enrolled and divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group included patients with granulomatous lobular mastitis. Participants in the control group were women who underwent physical examination. Blood specimen was collected for MTHFR A1298C and C677T gene polymorphisms. The expression of C677T and A1298C MTHFR genes were observed at different loci.

Research results

The results revealed that there were significant differences in C/C and C/T genotype frequency between the experimental group and the control group (all P < 0.05). In addition, there were significant differences in allele frequency between the two groups (all P < 0.05).

Research conclusions

MTHFR gene was a susceptible factor for granulomatous lobular mastitis, and it causes specificity of genetic loci.

Research perspectives

The relationship between common variants of MTHFR and the incidence of granulomatous lobular mastitis should be further identified in clinical practice with a large number of patients.