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Association of BLK (rs13277113, rs2248932) polymorphism with systemic lupus erythematosus: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

The B-cell lymphocyte kinase (BLK) is a src-family protein tyrosine kinase specifically expressed in B-lineage cells that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and has been investigated in numerous ethnically diverse studies. However, genetic association studies that have examined the association between BLK gene variants and SLE have produced conflicting results. To shed further light on this issue, we performed a meta-analysis of the association between rs13277113, rs2248932 polymorphism and SLE in different ethnic groups. An updated literature-based meta-analysis of six original articles involving 20,271 control individuals and 11,796 subjects with SLE was conducted. Crude ORs with 95% CIs were used to assess the strength of association between rs13277113, rs2248932 polymorphism and SLE risk. Publication bias was estimated using Egger’s linear regression test. The authors assessed the evidence of genotypic association using STATA Version 10.0. The combined overall odds ratio, calculated for SLE and the risk A-allele of rs13277113 was 1.416 (95% CI: 1.358, 1.477). An odds ratio of 1.264 (95% CI: 1.208, 1.322) was found for the T-allele of rs2248932. Significant associations of rs13277113 and SLE were observed for dominant model (AA + AG vs. GG, OR: 1.518; 95% CI: 1.411, 1.632), and recessive model (AA vs. AG + GG, OR: 1.553; 95% CI: 1.461, 1.651); so were rs2248932 and SLE for dominant model (TT + TC vs. CC, OR: 1.342; 95% CI: 1.233, 1.460), and recessive model (TT vs. TC + CC, OR: 1.338; 95% CI: 1.257, 1.424). All of these were conducted in fixed effects model as heterogeneity was not detected. Tests for bias revealed no evidence of biases. On the assessment of available evidence, the authors concluded that moderate evidence exists for an association between the BLK rs13277113, rs2248932 variants and SLE. Therefore, further research is warranted on the role of BLK polymorphisms in the etiology of SLE.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the key program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (30830089) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30771848).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Ye Fan & Dong-Qing Ye

  2. Department of Rheumatology, Anhui Provincial Hospital, 17 Lujiang Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, People’s Republic of China

    Jin-Hui Tao

  3. Department of Stomatology, Jinzhong First People’s Hospital, 101 East Shuncheng Street, Jinzhong, 030600, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Li-Ping Zhang

  4. Department of Communicable Disease Control, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 630 Xincheng Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310051, People’s Republic of China

    Lian-Hong Li

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  1. Ye Fan
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Correspondence to Dong-Qing Ye.

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The authors Ye Fan, Jin-Hui Tao, and Li-Ping Zhang contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

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Fan, Y., Tao, JH., Zhang, LP. et al. Association of BLK (rs13277113, rs2248932) polymorphism with systemic lupus erythematosus: a meta-analysis. Mol Biol Rep 38, 4445–4453 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-0573-5

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