Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:5:113-21.
doi: 10.2147/CEG.S32368. Epub 2012 Jul 5.

Lactose intolerance: diagnosis, genetic, and clinical factors

Rejane Mattar  1 , Daniel Ferraz de Campos Mazo, Flair José Carrilho
Affiliations

Lactose intolerance: diagnosis, genetic, and clinical factors

Rejane Mattar et al. Clin Exp Gastroenterol. 2012.

Abstract

Most people are born with the ability to digest lactose, the major carbohydrate in milk and the main source of nutrition until weaning. Approximately 75% of the world's population loses this ability at some point, while others can digest lactose into adulthood. This review discusses the lactase-persistence alleles that have arisen in different populations around the world, diagnosis of lactose intolerance, and its symptomatology and management.

Keywords: LCT gene; MCM6 gene; hypolactasia; lactase non-persistence; lactase persistence; lactose.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tendency of lactase-persistence polymorphic variants in the world, based on the reports presented in Tables 1, 2, and 3. Notes: In places where there was more than one variant, the most frequent variant was considered. formula imageLCT-13910C>T; formula imageLCT-22018G>A/-13910CC; formula imageLCT-13915T>G; formula imageLCT-14010G>C; formula imageLCT-13907C>G.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Troelsen JT. Adult-type hypolactasia and regulation of lactase expression. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2005;1723:19–32. - PubMed
    1. Rasinperä H, Savilahti E, Enattah NS, et al. A genetic test which can be used to diagnose adult-type hypolactasia in children. Gut. 2004;53:1571–1576. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rasinperä H, Kuokkanen M, Kolho KL, Lindahl H, Enattah NS, Savilahti E. Transcriptional down regulation of the lactase (LCT) gene during childhood. Gut. 2005;54:1660–1661. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Robayo-Torres CC, Nichols BL. Molecular differentiation of congenital lactase deficiency from adult-type hypolactasia. Nutr Rev. 2007;65:95–98. - PubMed
    1. Boll W, Wagner P, Mantei N. Structure of the chromosomal gene and cDNAs coding for lactase-phlorizin hydrolase in humans with adult-type hypolactasia or persistence of lactase. Am J Hum Genet. 1991;48:889–890. - PMC - PubMed