BACKGROUND: Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are the 2 main type of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Several studies have been conducted to investigate the association of fucosyltransferase 2 gene (rs601338) variant with UC and CD, but the results were inconsistent. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to clarify this issue based on a relatively larger sample size.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, CNKI, and Chinese Wangfang databases up to 31 May 2018. Meta results were synthesized by using crude odds ratio with 95% confidence interval. Heterogeneity, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias were assessed using STATA 11.0 software.

RESULTS: A total of 8 relevant studies including 3874 IBDs patients (1872 UC cases, 2002 CD cases) and 5445 controls were included for meta-analysis. We found a significant association between rs601338 A allele and risk of IBDs in the Chinese population (OR=2.35, 95%CI=1.66~3.34, P=0.001), but not in whites. Stratified by disease type, we found a significant association between rs601338 polymorphism with CD and UC in the Chinese population, but not in the white population. In addition, funnel plot and Egger’s linear regression test suggests no publication bias in all genetic models.

CONCLUSIONS: Fucosyltransferase 2 gene (rs601338) polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to IBD, UC, and CD in the Chinese population, but these results might not be generalizable to other ethnic populations. Further well-designed studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords: Colitis, Ulcerative, Crohn Disease, Fucosyltransferases, Polymorphism, Genetic, Alleles, Asians, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, genetic variation, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Whites