Association between miR-146a, miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility to gastric cancer in a Chinese population

We performed a case-control study to investigate the role of miR-146a, miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 gene polymorphisms in the development of gastric cancer. A total of 245 hospitalized gastric cancer patients and 315 control subjects were collected between January 2012 and October 2014. The genotyping of miR-146a, miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 were performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). We observed significant differences in the genotype frequencies of miR-146a between patients with gastric cancer and controls using the chi(2) test (chi(2)=12.04, P=0.002). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that individuals with the CC genotype and GC+CC genotype of miR-146a were associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer compared to the GG genotype, and the adjusted ORs (95% CI) were 2.50 (1.42-4.41) and 1.62 (1.12-2.33). However, no significant associations were found between the miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 polymorphisms and the development of gastric cancer. In conclusion, our study found that miR-146a polymorphism was associated with gastric cancer development, but no significant association was found between miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 polymorphisms and gastric cancer risk. Further studies are greatly needed to confirm the results of our findings.