Downloaded from gut.bmj.com on September 29, 2014 - Published by group.bmj.com Gut Online First, published on July 15, 2014 as 10.1136/gutjnl-2014-306930 Pancreas ORIGINAL ARTICLE Fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) non-secretor status and blood group B are associated with elevated serum lipase activity in asymptomatic subjects, and an increased risk for chronic pancreatitis: a genetic association study Frank Ulrich Weiss,1 Claudia Schurmann,2,3 Annett Guenther,1 Florian Ernst,2 Alexander Teumer,2 Julia Mayerle,1 Peter Simon,1 Henry Völzke,4 Dörte Radke,4 Andreas Greinacher,5 Jens-Peter Kuehn,6 Martin Zenker,7 Uwe Völker,2 Georg Homuth,2 Markus M Lerch1 ▸ Additional material is ABSTRACT published online only. To view Objective Serum lipase activities above the threefold Significance of this study please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ upper reference limit indicate acute pancreatitis. We gutjnl-2014-306930). investigated whether high lipase activity—within the reference range and in the absence of pancreatitis—are What is already known on this subject? For numbered affiliations see ▸ The definition of acute pancreatitis includes end of article. associated with genetic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and whether these identified SNPs are also characteristic clinical symptoms in combination Correspondence to associated with clinical pancreatitis. with elevated serum enzyme activities (amylase Professor Markus M Lerch, or lipase) above three times the upper Methods Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 1 Department of Medicine A, ‘ ’ ‘ reference limit. Elevated lipase levels below University Medicine Greifswald, phenotypes serum lipase activity and high serum lipase activity’ were conducted including 3966 German this cut-off are not considered diagnostic for Fleischmannstrasse 41, pancreatitis, and can be observed in a number 17475 Greifswald, Germany; volunteers from the population-based Study-of-Health-in-
[email protected] of non-pancreatic conditions.