ORIGINAL ARTICLE Association of the Common Catalase Gene Polymorphism rs1001179 With Glycated Hemoglobin and Plasma Lipids in Hyperlipidemic Patients Antonis Goulas 1 • Dimitrios Agapakis 2 • Athanassios Apostolidis 1 • Dimitra Gouda 1 • Sotirios Anastassiadis 3 • Christina Trakatelli 3 • Christos Savopoulos 2 • Apostolos I. Hatzitolios 2 Received: 26 February 2016 / Accepted: 28 September 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Catalase represents perhaps the most effective antioxidant defense in the body under conditions of increased oxidative stress, and rs1001179 (CAT-262C [ T) is its most extensively studied gene polymorphism. Using an established PCR– RFLP method for genotyping, we examined the association of rs1001179 with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and plasma lipids using univariate analyses with age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and alcohol abuse as covariates, in a group of dyslipidemic patients from northern Greece. Our results suggest that the TT genotype is a risk factor for increased HbA1c and plasma triglycerides, and that this association is modulated by the BMI and/or age of the patients. Keywords Catalase  Gene polymorphism  rs1001179  Glycated hemoglobin  Plasma lipids Introduction Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is the most abundant reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the organism. It is produced by the mainly enzyme-catalyzed dismutation (by superoxide dismutase, SOD) of the superoxide radical O 2 - which is released within cells by a number of physiological and non-physiological processes including the catalytic activity of NAD(P)H oxidases and xanthine oxidase, the leakage of the & Antonis Goulas goulas@med.auth.gr 1 1st Laboratory of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece 2 1st Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, AHEPA Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece 3 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Papageorgiou Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54629 Thessaloniki, Greece 123 Biochem Genet DOI 10.1007/s10528-016-9777-2