[Associations of the decoy receptor and osteoprotegerin gene polymorphisms with ulcerative colitis in Chinese patients].

Objective: To investigate the correlation between decoy receptor (DcR)1, DcR2 and osteoprotegerin (OPG) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility to ulcerative colitis (UC) in Chinese population.

Methods: A total of 352 patients with UC as well as 463 sex- and age-matched healthy controls were recruited in the study. The genetic polymorphisms of DcR1 (rs12549481), DcR2 (rs1133782) and OPG (rs3102735) were determined using a mini-sequencing technique method.

Results: In the autosomal dominant model, the rates of mutant allele (A) and genotype (GA+AA) of DcR2 (rs1133782) were lower in UC patients compared to the controls [6.25% (44/704) vs 8.96% (83/926), P = 0.043; 11.36% (40/352) vs 17.28% (80/463), P = 0.018, respectively]. In the recessive model, moreover, we found that the rates of mutant allele (T) and homozygote (TT) of OPG(rs3102735) were significantly increased in UC patients in contrast with the controls [86.36% (608/704) vs 81.53% (755/926), P = 0.009; 75.28% (265/352) vs 66.95% (310/463), P = 0.010, respectively]. By means of unconditional Logistic regression analysis, the rate of mutant allele (T) of OPG (rs3102735) was shown to be significantly decreased in patients with severe UC compared to the other UC patients [76.67% (69/90) vs 87.79% (539/614), OR = 0.457, 95%CI 0.265-0.788, P = 0.004]. Nevertheless, the genetic polymorphism of DcR2(rs1133782) was not significantly related to the clinical features in UC patients. In addition, the genotypic distribution of DcR1 (rs12549481) in control group did not conform to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium rule, thus a further statistical analysis was not performed in our study.

Conclusions: The genetic polymorphism of DcR2(rs1133782) might be associated with the susceptibility to UC. Not only is the mutation of OPG (rs3102735) gene correlated to the development of UC, but also to the severity of disease.