Association between IL-1 single nucleotide polymorphisms and susceptibility to juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood and presents with various clinical phenotypes. A multifactorial and complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors are responsible for JIA, of which the proinflammatory cytokine genes are of particular research interest. This meta-analysis investigates the association between IL-1A and IL-1B gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to JIA.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A total of eight studies, involving 1633 patients and 2309 controls were included, and a meta-analysis was performed on the association between IL1A -889 C/T, IL1B -511 C/T, and IL1B +3954 C/T, and susceptibility to JIA.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: There was no significant association between the presence of IL1A -889 C/T, IL1B -511 C/T, and IL1B +3954 C/T polymorphisms and JIA, under any genetic model or in any ethnicity subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

Results of this study suggest that these three IL-1 variants do not increase the susceptibility to JIA. However, the limited number of studies and the considerable level of heterogeneity must be taken into account before interpretation.