Associations of polymorphisms in interleukins with tuberculosis: Evidence from a meta-analysis.

Background: Associations between polymorphisms in interleukins and tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility were already reported by many publications. The aim of this meta-analysis was to clarify associations between polymorphisms in interleukins and TB by combing the results of all relevant publications.

Methods: Eligible publications were searched from Pubmed, Embase, WOS and CNKI. We used Review Manager to combine the results of individual studies.

Results: Fifty-five studies were included in this study. IL-2 rs2069762 (recessive comparison), IL-4 rs2243250 (recessive and allele comparisons), IL-6 rs1800795 (dominant, recessive and allele comparisons), IL-8 rs4073 (dominant, recessive and allele comparisons), IL-10 rs1800871 (dominant, recessive and allele comparisons) and IL-10 rs1800896 (recessive comparison) polymorphisms were all significantly associated with TB in the total population. In subgroup analyses, we found positive results were mainly driven by the Asians.

Conclusions: Collectively, this meta-analysis proved that IL-2 rs2069762, IL-4 rs2243250, IL-6 rs1800795, IL-8 rs4073, IL-10 rs1800871 and IL-10 rs1800896 polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to TB, especially for Asians.