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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2026; 32(2): 112132
Published online Jan 14, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i2.112132
Published online Jan 14, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i2.112132
Association of FADS2 polymorphism rs174538 with fatty acid metabolism and disease severity in Japanese patients with Crohn’s disease
Hideyuki Matsuzawa, Yutaro Motoi, Kana Kojima, Kota Murohashi, Takahiro Kubota, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Biopharmaceutics, Niigata University of Pharmacy and Medical and Life Sciences, Niigata 956-8603, Japan
Zensho Ito, Kan Uchiyama, Yuichiro Ohtaki, Yuko Iwashita, Shizuka Suzuki, Tatsuya Nakada, Shigeo Koido, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University Kashiwa Hospital, Chiba 277-8567, Japan
Masayuki Saruta, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan
Toshifumi Ohkusa, Department of Microbiota Research, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Author contributions: Motoi Y, Kojima K, Murohashi K, and Kubota T conducted a genetic polymorphism study of the FADS2 gene; Ito Z, Uchiyama K, Ohtaki Y, Iwashita Y, Suzuki S, Nakada T, Koido S, Saruta M, and Ohkusa T investigated fatty acid composition and disease activity in patients with Crohn’s disease; Matsuzawa H, Uchiyama K, and Kubota T analyzed the relationships of FADS2 genetic polymorphisms with fatty acid composition and disease activity in patients with Crohn’s disease.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Jikei University School of Medicine and the Jikei University Kashiwa Hospital (No. 26-363-7869), as well as the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences (No. H27-005).
Informed consent statement: All subjects provided written informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hideyuki Matsuzawa, Doctorate Student, Faculty of Pharmacy, Depart
Received: July 31, 2025
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: November 28, 2025
Published online: January 14, 2026
Processing time: 165 Days and 20.9 Hours
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: November 28, 2025
Published online: January 14, 2026
Processing time: 165 Days and 20.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Erythrocyte membrane fatty acid composition ratios in Japanese Crohn’s disease (CD) patients are distinctive. Analysis was performed to determine effects on FADS2 genetic polymorphisms by serum and erythrocyte membrane fatty acid composition ratios, shown by delta 6 and delta 5 desaturases (D6D and D5D, respectively), and also disease activities. The FADS2 gene with the rs174538 mutation affected D6D and D5D activities, with a greater effect on D5D. However, for disease activity, wild-type rs174538 was positively correlated with D6D activity. These results indicate that confirmation of the rs174538 mutation can be used to predict disease severity in CD cases.