Association of Genetic Variations in Energy Metabolism Genes with Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in a Chinese Population: A Case-Control Study.

Objective: This study explored the relationship between susceptibility to single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in a population exposed to occupational noise.

Methods: Workers exposed to noise in a steel enterprise in Henan Province were included in the study. Workers with a hearing threshold of ≥40 dB (A) for binaural high-frequency (3000, 4000, and 6000 Hz) in the pure tone audiometry were included in the case group (393 workers in total). Individuals whose hearing threshold for any frequency (500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) was ≤25 dB (A) and an average hearing threshold of <35 dB (A) for high frequencies were included in the control group (731 individuals in total). A SNPscan multiple SNP typing kit was used for SNP typing, and PLINK software was used in analyzing the correlation between each gene locus and NIHL susceptibility. Cumulative noise exposure (CNE) was stratified as CNE < 97 dB (A) · year and CNE ≥ 97 dB (A) · year.

Results: Regarding rs11204100, compared with subjects with the TT genotype, subjects with the TC+CC genotype were less susceptible to NIHL (odds ratio [OR] [95% CI] = 0.712 [0.554, 0.913], P = 0.009). After CNE stratification, subjects with the TC+CC genotype were less susceptible to NIHL than those with the TT genotype in the CNE ≥97 dB (A) · year group (OR [95% CI] = 0.614 [0.433, 0.871], P = 0.007). As for the rs10503675, subjects with the AG+GG genotype were less susceptible to NIHL than subjects with the AA genotype (OR [95% CI] = 0.797 [0.541, 0.925], P = 0.011) in the general population. Haplotype results showed that CGT (rs11204100-rs10503675-rs17412009) is associated with lowered susceptibility to NIHL.

Conclusion: The ATP6V1B2 gene plays an important role in the risk of NIHL, and the C allele of rs11204100 and G allele of rs10503675 are associated with lowered susceptibility to NIHL.