Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Feb 26, 2018; 6(1): 1-8
Published online Feb 26, 2018. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v6.i1.1
Genetic studies in irritable bowel syndrome-status quo
Stefan-Lucian Popa, Dan L Dumitrascu, Romana Vulturar, Beate Niesler
Stefan-Lucian Popa, Dan L Dumitrascu, Department of 2nd Medical, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca 400006, Romania
Romana Vulturar, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca 400006, Romania
Beate Niesler, Department of Human Molecular Genetics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg 69120, Germany
Author contributions: Popa S supervised the study and has made substantial contributions to conception and correction of the drafts; Dumitrascu DL analyzed the data and drafted the paper; Vulturar R has made substantial contributions to conception and revised the drafts; Niesler B made substantial contributions to the analysis of the data, interpretation, and revised the drafts.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Dr. Dan L Dumitrascu, PhD, Full Professor, Department of 2nd Medical, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Clinicilor Street nr3-5, Cluj-Napoca 400006, Romania. ddumitrascu@umfcluj.ro
Telephone: +40-26-4593355
Received: December 3, 2017
Peer-review started: December 4, 2017
First decision: December 27, 2017
Revised: January 17, 2018
Accepted: February 24, 2018
Article in press: February 25, 2018
Published online: February 26, 2018
Processing time: 93 Days and 13.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The main genetic polymorphisms encountered in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are: Serotonin transporter (SERT) gene (SLC6A4), guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit beta-3 (GNbeta3), serotonin type 3 receptor genes (HTR3A), (HTR3E), (HTR2A), the tumor necrosis factor superfamily member TL1A gene (TNFSF15). We performed a review of existent data, that studied genetic polymorphisms in IBS patients. We found that the actual IBS subgroups are not sufficient in order to identify distinct phenotypes and further in leading to new guiding principles for treatment. This systematic review demonstrates the need for genetic studies with an increasing number of subjects, because contradictory findings in terms of IBS subtype have been reported.