We performed a meta-analysis to estimate whether combined evidence shows the association between the MCP-1-2518A/G polymorphism and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. Relevant articles dated to July 2014 were acquired from the PubMed, EMBASE, ISI, and CNKI databases. The number of the genotypes and/or alleles for the MCP-1-2518A/G in cases and control subjects was extracted, and statistical analysis was conducted using STATA 11.2 software. Summary odds ratios (ORs) with their 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were used to calculate the risk of autoimmune diseases with the MCP-1-2518A/G. Significant increased risk of autoimmune diseases could be found for A allele vs. G allele (OR = 1.616, 95 % CI 1.027-2.542, P = 0.038) and AA + AG vs. GG (OR = 1.616, 95 % CI 1.027-2.542, P = 0.038) in Asian patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and for A allele vs. G allele (OR = 1.383, 95 % CI 1.142-1.676, P = 0.022) and AA vs. AG + GG (OR = 1.575, 95 % CI 1.361-1.823, P < 0.001) in European patients with Crohn's disease (CD). In addition, when comparison of European patients with lupus nephritis (LN) and without LN, significant association between patients with LN and without LN also could be found for AA vs. AG + GG (OR = 0.713, 95 % CI 0.545-0.933, P = 0.014). This meta-analysis showed that the MCP-1-2518-A allele confers susceptibility to Asian patients with RA and European patients with CD.
Keywords: Association; Autoimmune diseases; MCP-1; Meta-analysis.