MicroRNA-499 Rs3746444 polymorphism and biliary atresia

BackgroundSingle nucleotide polymorphisms within microRNAs are known to affect the risk in development and prognosis of many diseases. This study was designed to investigate whether polymorphism of microRNA-499 (miR-499, rs3746444 A>G) is associated with risk to biliary atresia (BA).MethodsA hospital-based cases–control study was performed on a total of 507 Han Chinese (207 BA cases and 300 ethnically-matched healthy controls without any evidence of liver diseases) so as to analyze the association between miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and BA risk as well as liver function remission (LFR) after liver transplantation.ResultsA significant higher frequency of the rs3746444 G alleles was found in the BA cases than the control group (odd ratio, 1.55, 95% confidence intervals [CIs], 1.15–2.10). This polymorphism was also observed to correlate with some clinic-pathological features of BA cases such as liver inflammatory. Further research found both higher levels of IL-6 (P < 0.05) and TNF-α (P < 0.05) in removed liver as well as in serum. What is more, the miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism significantly affected the status of LFR (hazard ratio, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.08–1.83).ConclusionsMiR-499 (rs3746444) gene polymorphisms may be genetic determinants for increased risk of BA and prolonged recovery of BA patients after liver transplantation in Han Chinese.