Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2020; 12(3): 289-300
Published online Mar 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i3.289
Association between interleukin-21 gene rs907715 polymorphism and gastric precancerous lesions in a Chinese population
Xiao-Qin Wang, Yang Li, Paul D Terry, Wen-Jing Kou, Yue Zhang, Zhao-Zhao Hui, Xiao-Han Ren, Ming-Xu Wang
Xiao-Qin Wang, Yang Li, Wen-Jing Kou, Yue Zhang, Xiao-Han Ren, Ming-Xu Wang, Department of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Paul D Terry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN 37920, United States
Zhao-Zhao Hui, The Nethersole School of Nursing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Author contributions: Wang XQ wrote the manuscript; Wang XQ and Li Y analyzed the data; Li Y, Kou WJ, Zhang Y, Hui ZZ, and Ren XH performed the majority of the experiments; Wang XQ and Wang MX designed the research; Wang MX and Terry PD revised the manuscript.
Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No. zdyf2017007; Project of Shaanxi Health and Culture Research Center, No. JKWH2019-Z02.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Health Science Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all study participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mingxu Wang, PhD, Professor, Department of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, 76 Yanta West Road, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. wangmx601@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Received: September 6, 2019
Peer-review started: September 6, 2019
First decision: October 14, 2019
Revised: November 18, 2019
Accepted: January 6, 2020
Article in press: January 6, 2020
Published online: March 15, 2020
Processing time: 187 Days and 20.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Previous studies have found that interleukin-21 (IL-21) may be associated with the risk of gastric precancerous lesions, and single nucleotide (SNPs) of the IL-21 gene are associated with various diseases or cancer. Clarifying the possible role of IL-21 SNPs (rs907715, rs2221903 and rs12508721) in gastric precancerous lesions is of great significance in preventing the development of gastric cancer.

Research motivation

However, no studies have examined the possible role of IL-21 SNPs (rs907715, rs2221903 and rs12508721) in gastric precancerous lesions.

Research objectives

Therefore, the present study explored the associations between SNPs of IL-21 (rs907715, rs2221903 and rs12508721) and risk of gastric precancerous lesions in a north western Chinese population, which may help clarify the etiology of gastric cancer and provide new targets for therapeutic interventions.

Research methods

Gastric precancerous lesions were confirmed by endoscopic examination and categorized as non-atrophic gastritis, atrophic gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia. Three SNPs of IL-21 (rs907715, rs2221903 and rs12508721) were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction–ligase detection reaction in 588 cases and 290 healthy controls. Descriptive statistic and logistic regression were used for data analyses.

Research results

We found an association between IL-21 rs907715 polymorphism and gastric precancerous lesions. IL-21 rs907715 genotype CC and C frequencies in patients with gastric precancerous lesions were higher than in controls. SNP rs907715 increased in CC and C genotypes were associated with intestinal metaplasia patients when examined separately. However, the exact role of rs907715 in development of gastric precancerous lesions at a molecular level remains to be studied.

Research conclusions

In conclusion, our findings indicate that SNP rs907715 of IL-21 gene is associated with gastric precancerous lesions.

Research perspectives

If confirmed by other studies, the results of our study suggest that IL-21 rs907715 polymorphisms may shed light on the etiology of precancerous lesions.