The association between interleukin-8 gene polymorphism and the risk of sepsis in older adults

Previous studies on the relationship between interleukin-8 (IL-8) rs4073 polymorphism and sepsis susceptibility have covered contradictory results. Our purpose is to investigate whether this polymorphism confers a risk for sepsis using both experimental methods and meta-analysis.

In the current study, the authoritative databases including PubMed and Embase were carefully searched and reviewed. The search period spanned from the inception of each database until June 2024. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were adopted to compute the association strength. A total of 480 patients and 840 healthy individuals in older adults were selected. PCR-RFLP was applied to investigate the gene polymorphism including genotype frequency and allele frequency.

In summary, no significant association was found by allele contrast (T vs. A: OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.75-1.62, P = 0.606), homozygote comparison (TT vs. AA: OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.57-3.20, P = 0.498), heterozygote comparison (AT vs. AA: OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 0.72-2.65, P = 0.668), recessive genetic model (TT vs. AA/TA: OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.64-1.43, P = 0.834), or dominant genetic model (TT/TA vs. AA: OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 0.68-2.79, P = 0.380). Analysis of the IL-8 gene polymorphism revealed three genotypes: AA, TA, and TT. We found that TT genotype and T allele were significantly associated with sepsis risk in older adults (all p < 0.05).

The meta-analysis indicates no positive findings. However, the present experimental study has demonstrated that the IL-8 rs4073 polymorphism contributes increased risk to sepsis for older adults from Zhejiang Province, China. Future studies are urgently needed to confirm our conclusion.