Folia Biologica
Journal of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Charles University 

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Fol. Biol. 2025, 71, 1-7

https://doi.org/10.14712/fb2025071010001

Selected Genetic Characteristics of the Vietnamese Minority Living in the Czech Republic

Khanh Ha Pham1,2ID, Jaroslav A. Hubáček1,3ID

13rd Department of Medicine – Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
2Thomayer University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Experimental Medicine Centre, Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

Received November 2024
Accepted February 2025

The aim of this study was to analyse the allelic distribution of selected genes in the Czech and Vietnamese populations. We analysed samples from 94 Vietnamese volunteers and 2,859 Czech population-based subjects (2,559 from the Czechs post-MONICA and 300 volunteers from the South region of the Czech Republic). There were significant differences between the two populations for most, but not all, of the SNPs analysed. In particular, the prevalence of risk alleles in the analysed polymorphisms tended to be lower in the Vietnamese community compared to the Czech population, especially within the FTO (rs17817449; associated with obesity risk, P < 0.0001), TCF7L2 (rs7903146; linked to type 2 dia­betes, P < 0.0001) and ADH1B (rs1229984; related to alcohol consumption, P < 0.0001) genes. The genotype within the MCM6/LCT cluster (rs4988235) associated with lactase persistence was not present in the Vietnamese population. Slight genotype differences were detected for one HFE polymorphism (rs1799945 with P = 0.005; but not for rs1800562). Only the genotype frequencies within the MC4R and APOE genes were almost identical in both populations. We conclude that the Vietnamese population may have a lower genetic predisposition to the non-communicable diseases such as obesity or diabetes mellitus.

Funding

This study was supported by project No. 00023001 of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic for the development of research organization – IKEM, Prague, Czech Republic – Institutional Support.

References

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