BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have evaluated the associations of CD16 158F>V and CD32 131H>R gene polymorphisms with the risk of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Published studies on CD16 158F>V and CD32 131H>R polymorphisms with susceptibility to ITP were systematically reviewed until April 1, 2014. The Cochrane Library Database, Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) were used to search for relevant studies and then a meta-analysis was conducted by using Stata 12.0 software in order to produce consistent statistical results.

RESULTS: In total, 10 clinical case-control studies with 741 ITP patients and 1092 healthy controls were enrolled for quantitative data analysis. Results of this meta-analysis suggest that CD16 158F>V polymorphism had strong correlations with the susceptibility to ITP under 5 genetic models (all P<0.05). However, no similar associations were found between CD32 131H>R polymorphism and the susceptibility to ITP (all P>0.05). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity revealed that CD16 158F>V polymorphism was associated with the increased risk of ITP among both Caucasian and non-Caucasian populations. Nevertheless, no statistically significant correlations between CD32 131H>R polymorphism and the risk of ITP were observed among Caucasians and non-Caucasians (all P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that CD16 158F>V polymorphism may contribute to the increased risk of ITP, whereas CD32 131H>R polymorphism may not be an important risk factor for ITP.

Keywords: Asian Continental Ancestry Group - genetics, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group - genetics, GPI-Linked Proteins - metabolism, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic - metabolism, Receptors, IgG - metabolism, Risk Factors