Tumor necrosis factor a (tnf-α) is a pleiotropic cytokine which can regulate a wide variety of cellular responses. low concentrations of tnf-α seem to increase tumor growth and progression. the rs1800629 polymorphism in tnf-α has been implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma risk but the published data remain inconclusive. in order to derive a more precise estimation of the relationship, a meta-analysis was performed.
Methods
A meta-analysis was performed by searching pubmed, google scholar and science direct databases. 6 studies including 925 cases and 1307 controls were collected for investigating this snp. hardy-weinberg equilibrium (hwe) was tested using snp stat online software. odds ratio test with 95% confidence interval (cis) was done for determining the strength of association between rs1800629 polymorphism and hcc risk. in addition clustering analysis, pca and cca were done by past software to examine which countries are more close to each other according to genotype distribution and correlation between geographical distance and genotype distribution, respectively.
Results
Rs1800629 was not significantly associated with hcc susceptibility and also there was not observed any correlation between genotype distribution and geographical distance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, our meta-analysis of the six studies showed that rs1800629 polymorphism was not significantly associated with the risk of hcc. however, aa genotype is a risk factor for developing hcc in iranian population. further studies with large sample sizes are needed to confirm these associations among other populations.
