Arthritis Research & Therapy

official impact factor 4.36

Open Access Research article

Association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in RHOB and TXNDC3 with knee osteoarthritis susceptibility: two case-control studies in East Asian populations and a meta-analysis

Dongquan Shi1,2, Takahiro Nakamura3, Masahiro Nakajima4, Jin Dai1,2, Jianghui Qin1, Haijian Ni1, Yong Xu1, Chen Yao1, Jia Wei5, Baorui Liu5, Shiro Ikegawa4* and Qing Jiang1,2*

Author Affiliations

1 The Center of Diagnosis and Treatment for Joint Disease, Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University, 321 Zhongshan Road, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China

2 Laboratory for Bone and Joint Diseases, Model Animal Research Center, Nanjing University, Zhongshan Road 321, Nanjing 210061, Jiangsu, China

3 Laboratory for Mathematics, Premedical Course, National Defense Medical College, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-8513 Japan

4 Laboratory for Bone and Joint Diseases, Center for Genomic Medicine, RIKEN, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan

5 Department of Oncology, Drum Tower Hospital Affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University, Zhongshan Road 321, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China

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Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008, 10:R54 doi:10.1186/ar2423

Published: 10 May 2008

Abstract

Introduction

Conflicting findings on the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in RHOB and TXNDC3 with susceptibility to knee osteoarthritis (OA) have been reported in European Caucasians. To examine the associations of these SNPs with OA in East Asian populations and to evaluate their global significance, we conducted two case-control studies in 955 Chinese and 750 Japanese patients.

Methods

We genotyped the previously implicated SNPs rs585017 (in RHOB) and rs4720262 (in TXNDC3) in patients with primary symptomatic knee OA with radiographic confirmation and in matched control individuals, and analyzed their associations. We further conducted a meta-analysis of the study findings together with those of previously reported European studies using the DerSimonian-Laird procedure.

Results

A significant association of RHOB with knee OA was observed in male Chinese patients (P = 0.02). No significant associations were found for RHOB in any other comparisons in the East Asian populations. The association of TXNDC3 was replicated in Chinese female (P = 0.04) and Japanese (P = 0.03) patients, although none of these associations persisted after Bonferroni correction. Significant association (P = 0.02 for the allelic frequency) with nonsignificant heterogeneity was found in the East Asian replication study. No significant association was found in any comparison in the meta-analysis for all studies.

Conclusion

Our study replicates the association, previously reported in European Caucasians, of TXNDC3 with knee OA susceptibility in an East Asian population.