Investigation on association between five common polymorphisms in vascular endothelial growth factor and prototypes of autoimmune diseases.

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a crucial regulator in angiogenesis. Previous research has indicated that modified VEGF-VEGFR signaling pathway has an impact on the development of inflammatory diseases. It has been proved that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for critical genes might be associated with the susceptibility of autoimmune diseases. In this study, we targeted five common VEGF SNPs, i.e. -1154G>A, +405G>C, -2578C>A, +936C>T and -460T>C. Their associations with eleven prototypes autoimmune disease were assessed by our meta-analysis.

Methods: PubMed/Medline and CNKI were searched for related articles. Studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this analysis. Meta-analysis was performed using odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals as effect measures.

Results: 73 studies from 30 relevant articles were retrieved in accordance with the data selection methods. A total of 11,354 cases and 8694 controls from the 30 included studies were enrolled in this meta-analysis. In the overall analysis, no statistically significant association was confirmed concerning five common VEGF polymorphisms and the susceptibility of autoimmune diseases. Interestingly, in the stratified analysis by ethnicity, the C allele of +405G>C polymorphism in Caucasian people was found to be correlated to increase autoimmune diseases risk, while an inverse trend of association was observed in Asian people. Also, decreased susceptibility to Graves' disease was detected in Caucasian people with G allele in +405G>C polymorphism. Besides, a trend of decreased risk of psoriatic arthritis was confirmed among population with T allele of +936C>T polymorphism.

Conclusion: In summary, as suggested by our analysis, +405G>C polymorphism in VEGF might exert an influence on autoimmune diseases, with opposite effect observed in Asians and Caucasians. No association between the other four common SNPs (-2578C>A, -1154G>A and -460T>C) and autoimmune diseases susceptibility was confirmed.