Relationship between chemokine receptor 5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism and lupus nephritis

Results from the published studies on the association between chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) Δ32/W gene polymorphism and lupus nephritis (LN) are still conflicting. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between CCR5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism and LN and to explore whether CCR5 Δ32 allele, Δ32/Δ32 and W/W genotypes could become a predictive marker for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) developing into LN. Association studies were identified from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and CBM-disc (China Biological Medicine Database) as of March 1, 2014, and eligible investigations were synthesized using meta-analysis method. Results were expressed with odds ratios (OR) for dichotomous data, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were also calculated. Five investigations were identified for the analysis of association between CCR5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism and LN. In the overall populations, Asians, Caucasian population, the association between CCR5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism and LN susceptibility was not found. Interestingly, a trend toward an association of Δ32 allele and W/W genotype with LN risk was observed in African population. However, this meta-analysis only included one study for the study in Africans. We also found that the gene distribution of CCR5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism between SLE group and LN group were not different. In conclusion, our results indicate that CCR5 Δ32/W gene polymorphism was not associated with LN risk and might be no a significant genetic molecular marker to predict the SLE patients developing into LN. However, more investigations are required to further clarify this association.