A study on associations of single-nucleotide polymorphisms within H19 and HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) with genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis in a Chinese population

The purpose of our study was to examine whether the H19 rs2839698, rs217727, and HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) rs12826786 polymorphisms were associated with genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a Chinese population. A total of 777 participants were enrolled in this study, including 328 RA patients and 449 healthy controls. The H19 rs2839698, rs217727, and HOTAIR rs12826786 polymorphisms were detected by the ligase detection reaction-polymerase chain reaction (LDR-PCR) technology. No significant difference in genotype distribution between RA patients and healthy controls was found (P = 0.38 for rs2839698; P = 0.79 for rs217727; P = 0.39 for rs12826786). The difference in allele frequencies between RA patients and controls was also non-significant (rs2839698 T versus C, P = 0.23, odds ratio (OR) = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.92-1.43; rs217727 C versus T, P = 0.55, OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.87-1.32; and rs12826786 T versus C, P = 0.32, OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 0.88-1.47). We have also evaluated the relationships of above-mentioned polymorphisms with risk of RA under dominant model and recessive model, but non-significant evidence was found. No significant evidence was detected for the relationships of H19 rs2839698, rs217727, and HOTAIR rs12826786 polymorphisms with risk of different serotypes of RA. Our results indicated that H19 rs2839698, rs217727, and HOTAIR rs12826786 polymorphisms might not be involved in the genetic background of RA in Chinese.