Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2020; 12(3): 289-300
Published online Mar 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i3.289
Association between interleukin-21 gene rs907715 polymorphism and gastric precancerous lesions in a Chinese population
Xiao-Qin Wang, Yang Li, Paul D Terry, Wen-Jing Kou, Yue Zhang, Zhao-Zhao Hui, Xiao-Han Ren, Ming-Xu Wang
Xiao-Qin Wang, Yang Li, Wen-Jing Kou, Yue Zhang, Xiao-Han Ren, Ming-Xu Wang, Department of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Paul D Terry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN 37920, United States
Zhao-Zhao Hui, The Nethersole School of Nursing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Author contributions: Wang XQ wrote the manuscript; Wang XQ and Li Y analyzed the data; Li Y, Kou WJ, Zhang Y, Hui ZZ, and Ren XH performed the majority of the experiments; Wang XQ and Wang MX designed the research; Wang MX and Terry PD revised the manuscript.
Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No. zdyf2017007; Project of Shaanxi Health and Culture Research Center, No. JKWH2019-Z02.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Health Science Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all study participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mingxu Wang, PhD, Professor, Department of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, 76 Yanta West Road, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. wangmx601@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Received: September 6, 2019
Peer-review started: September 6, 2019
First decision: October 14, 2019
Revised: November 18, 2019
Accepted: January 6, 2020
Article in press: January 6, 2020
Published online: March 15, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The single nucleotide polymorphisms of interleukin-21 (IL-21) gene were confirmed to be related to various diseases, but no studies have examined the possible role of IL-21 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs907715, rs2221903, and rs12508721) in gastric precancerous lesions.

AIM

To explore the associations between SNPs of IL-21 gene (rs907715, rs2221903, and rs12508721) and gastric precancerous lesions in a Chinese population.

METHODS

Three SNPs of IL-21 were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction–ligase detection reaction in 588 cases and 290 healthy controls from May 2013 to December 2016 in northwestern China. Gastric precancerous lesions were confirmed by endoscopic examination and categorized as non-atrophic gastritis, atrophic gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia. Descriptive statistic and logistic regression were used for data analyses.

RESULTS

IL-21 rs907715 genotype CC and C frequencies were higher in in patients with gastric precancerous lesions than in the controls (OR = 1.59, 95%CI: 1.06-2.38, P = 0.013; OR = 1.28, 95%CI: 1.01-2.22, P = 0.044, respectively) after adjusting for confounding factors. For SNP rs907715 in intestinal metaplasia patients, significant differences between cases and controls were observed in the frequencies of genotype CC and C (OR = 1.92, 95%CI: 1.24-2.98, P = 0.004; OR = 1.53, 95%CI: 1.04-2.24, P = 0.028, respectively); for non-atrophic gastritis and atrophic gastritis patients, the CC and C genotypes showed no significant association with risk in all models. No association between either rs2221903 or rs12508721 and gastric precancerous lesions was found in the present study. In the haplotype analysis, the TC haplotype (rs907715 and rs12508721) and TT haplotype (rs2221903 and rs907715) were more frequent in the case group than control group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate that SNP rs907715 of IL-21 gene is associated with gastric precancerous lesions. The TC haplotype (rs907715 and rs12508721) and TT haplotype (rs2221903 and rs907715) increased the risk of gastric precancerous lesions. If confirmed, these findings will shed light on the etiology of precancerous lesions.

Keywords: Interleukin-21 gene, Single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs907715, Gastric precancerous lesions, Intestinal metaplasia

Core tip: This study investigated the associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms of interleukin-21 (IL-21) gene (rs907715, rs2221903 and rs12508721) and gastric precancerous lesions in a Chinese population. The results showed an association between IL-21 rs907715 polymorphism and gastric precancerous lesions. IL-21 rs907715 genotype CC and C frequencies were higher in patients with gastric precancerous lesions than in the controls. Single nucleotide polymorphism rs907715 increased in CC and C genotypes were associated with intestinal metaplasia patients when examined separately. These findings may help clarify the etiology of gastric cancer.