Associations between human leukocyte antigen C locus polymorphism and psoriatic arthritis in populations of European and Middle Eastern descent: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Gene-disease association between human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C locus polymorphism and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) remains controversial.

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate the relationship between HLA-C locus polymorphism and PsA in populations of European and Middle Eastern descent.

SEARCH

METHODS

PubMed, PMC, Elsevier and Google Scholar databases from 1980 to January 2020. The search was limited to articles in English.

SELECTION CRITERIA: Case-control studies (with unrelated participants) that had allele/genotype data on the association between HLA-C locus polymorphism and PsA susceptibility.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two investigators searched independently in searching the literature. Disagreements were resolved by discussion and consultation with a third researcher. The Q-Genie tool was used to assess the quality of articles.

RESULTS

Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. At the allelic level, three alleles were associated with an increased risk of PsA and five were associated with a reduced risk. At the phenotypic level, four alleles were associated with increased risk of PsA and three were associated with a reduced risk. At both the allelic and phenotypic levels, the results revealed that HLA-C*04 played a protective role in PsA (The pooled odds ratio [OR] is 0.66 for allelic level and 0.63 for phenotypic level), while HLA-C*02, *06 and *12 increased the risk of suffering from PsA (The pooled ORs of C*02, *06 and *12 are 2.21, 2.63 and 1.49 for allelic level, and 1.79, 2.96 and 2.25 for phenotypic level, respectively).

CONCLUSION

The pooled results showed a significant association between PsA and the HLA-C gene in populations of European and Middle Eastern descent. At both the allelic and phenotypic levels, the HLA-C*02, *06 and *12 may contribute to susceptibility to PsA, while HLA-C*04 may confer a protective role against PsA.

REGISTRATION: Not registered.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.