Common variants of FUT2 are associated with plasma vitamin B12 levels.

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.

We identified a strong association (P = 5.36 x 10(-17)) between rs492602 in FUT2 and plasma vitamin B(12) levels in a genome-wide scan (n = 1,658) and an independent replication sample (n = 1,059) from the Nurses' Health Study. Women homozygous for the rs492602[G] allele had higher B(12) levels. This allele is in strong linkage disequilibrium with the FUT2 nonsecretor variant encoding W143X, suggesting a plausible mechanism for altered B(12) absorption and plasma levels.

PMID: 18776911 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2673801