Association of rs10954213 polymorphisms and haplotype diversity in interferon regulatory factor 5 with systemic lupus erythematosus: A meta-analysis

The rs10954213 polymorphism and the haplotype diversity in interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) play a special role in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) but with inconclusive results. We conducted a meta-analysis integrating case-control and haplotype variant studies in multiple ethnic populations to clearly discern the effect of these two variants on SLE. Eleven studies on the relation between rs10954213 polymorpisms in IRF5 and SLE were included and we selected a random effect model to calculate the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). A total of 6982 cases and 8077 controls were involved in the meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that A allele was significantly associated with increased risk of SLE as compared with the IRF5 rs10954213 G allele (A vs. G, P < 0.00001) in all subjects. The same pattern of the results was also obtained in the European, African American, and Latin American. Asian population had a much lower prevalence of the A allele (49.1%) than any other population studied, and Europeans had the highest frequency of the IRF5 rs10954213 A allele (62.1%). The significant association of increased SLE risk and TCA haplotype was indicated in the contrast of TCA vs. TTA as the pooled OR was 2.14 (P=0.002). The same result was also found in the contrast of TCA vs. TTG as the pooled OR was 1.45 (P=0.004). This meta-analysis suggests that the A allele of rs10954213 and TCA haplotype (rs2004640-rs2070197-rs10954213) in IRF5 is associated with the increased risk of SLE in different ethnic groups, and its prevalence is ethnicity dependent.