Macrophage migration inhibitory factor -173 G > C polymorphism and risk of tuberculosis: A meta-analysis

The aim of the present meta-analysis was to find out the impact of MIF -173 G > C polymorphism on risk of tuberculosis (TB). We conducted a search of case-control studies on the associations of -173 G > C variant of MIF with susceptibility to tuberculosis in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus. We extracted the data from eligible studies and achieved a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between MIF -173 G > C polymorphism and the risk of TB. Odds ratios (ORs) with the corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled to find out the impact of MIF -173G > C promoter polymorphism on TB risk. The pooled ORs were calculated for the codominant, dominant, recessive, and allelic model comparison. The findings revealed that MIF -173 G > C variant increased the risk of TB in codominant (OR = 1.54, 95 %CI = 1.26-1.88, p < 0.0001; CG vs GG), and dominant (OR = 1.62, 95 %CI = 1.33-1.96, p < 0.00001; GC+CC vs GG) inheritance models tested. The results suggested that the MIF -173 C allele significantly increased the risk of PTB (OR = 1.49, 95 %CI = 1.28-1.74, p < 0.00001). The findings of this meta-analysis propose that MIF -173 G > C variant is associated with the risk of TB. More case-control studies with well-designed in different ethnic groups and larger sample size are needed to confirm the findings.