Abstract

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) multifactorial joint disease with strong genetic and occupational components. Many studies have reported the association of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) -174G>C polymorphism on the risk of OA risk, but the results remained controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis was to more systematically summarize the association between IL-6 -174 G>C polymorphism and OA. Methods: Eligible articles were identified by search of databases including PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge and Google scholar up to December 2016. Data were extracted by two independent authors and pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95 confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Results: A total of 10 eligible publications were included in the meta-analysis including 3,814 cases and 3,876 controls. Overall pooled analysis suggest a not significant association between IL-6 -174G>C polymorphism and OA risk under Allelic comparison (C vs. G: OR=3.50, 95 CI = 1.49-8.24, p= 0.004) and dominant comparison (CC+GC vs. GG; OR= 1.25, 95 CI = 1.00-1.55, p= 0.04). Among them, 8 studies of Caucasian population and 2 studies of Asian population were included. Conclusion: The present meta-analysis suggests that IL-6 -174G>C polymorphism is associated with an increased OA risk. However, future large studies with gene-gene and gene-environment interactions are needed to validate these findings.