Vol.22 No.5

Review Article

A meta-analysis of the association between cytokine gene polymorphisms and systemic sclerosis

Authors

Wen-jia Peng1 , Hai-feng Pan1 , Jin-hui Tao2 , Bing-xiang Wang1 , Man-man Lu1 , Song Wang1 , Qian He1 , Jing Wang1

  • Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, People’s Republic of China
  • Department of Rheumatology, Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, People’s Republic of China
Received:

28 September 2011

Accepted:

21 November 2011

Published online:

16 December 2011

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Abstract

We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate the association of cytokine gene polymorphisms with systemic sclerosis (SSc) susceptibility. Electronic databases were used to identify published studies before July 2011. In total, 23 case-control studies including 3524 SSc cases and 6086 healthy controls were included in the meta-analysis. We examined the relationship between five gene polymorphisms [cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) -1722T/C, CTLA-4 -318C/T, CTLA-4 +49A/G, angiotensin-converting enzyme I/D, STAT-4 rs7574865] and susceptibility to SSc. The combined odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was calculated to estimate the strength of the association in a fixed or random effect model. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also assessed. We found a significant association between SSc and STAT rs7574865 (TT vs. GG: OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.36-0.54; TT vs. TG + GG: OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.39-0.59; TT + TG vs. GG: OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.66-0.83; T vs. G: OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.66-0.79), but there were no other statistically significant associations with other gene polymorphisms. Our study suggested that SSc is associated with STAT gene rs7574865 polymorphism.

Key words

Systemic sclerosis - Polymorphism - STAT4 - ACE - CTLA-4 - Meta-analysis