The aim of this meta-analysis was to clarify the role of Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene (IL1-RN) Variable Number of Tandem Repeats (VNTR) polymorphism on the risk of OA by means of meta-analysis.
Eligible articles were retrieved from PubMed, Web of science and Google scholar with a total of 1187 OA cases and 2659 controls. The strength of the association between the IL1-RN VNTR polymorphism and the risk of OA was assessed by odds ratios (ORs) with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for each study.
The meta-analysis of seven published studies retrieved from the literature search showed a significantly increased OA risk in the recessive model analysis (22 vs 2L + LL: P
Level III, diagnostic study.
This meta-analysis showed that IL1-RN VNTR polymorphism may increase the susceptibility to OA. More studies with detailed information are needed to validate our conclusion.