Association between CD247 gene rs2056626 polymorphism and the risk of systemic sclerosis: Evidence from a systematic review and Bayesian hierarchical meta-analysis

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune fibrotic disease, in which the genetics has been implicated in its etiopathogenesis. The rs2056626 polymorphisms in CD247 gene, which encodes the T cell receptor zeta subunit, has been identified as one of the susceptibility loci for SSc. A number of studies have addressed to this association; nonetheless, inconsistent results confer the necessity to conduct meta-analysis in order to achieve a more precise comprehension of the subject.Methods: We searched PubMed and Scopus databases to retrieve relevant studies up to November 2018. The extracted data were statistically analyzed using hierarchical Bayesian and traditional meta-analysis methods and the association strength was estimated by pooled odds ratios (ORs) or log (OR) with 95% confidence/credible interval, respectively.Results: Four studies containing 2205 cases and 2686 healthy controls met our inclusion criteria. Our pooled classical meta-analysis revealed no significant effect of rs2056626 on SSc risk under allelic (OR = 0.913, 95% CI = 0.827-1.009, P = .076), homozygous (OR = 0.832, 95% CI = 0.510-1.356, P = .460), heterozygous (OR = 0.846, 95% CI = 0.647-1.105, P = .220), dominant (OR = 0.840, 95% CI = 0.620-1.136, P = .258) and recessive (OR = 0.883, 95% CI = 0.617-1.263, P = .495) models. Further Bayesian hierarchical analysis indicated lack of significant associations in all models.Conclusion: Exerting the Bayesian meta-analysis as a powerful strategy to pool the data, the rs2056626 polymorphism may not be a predisposing factor for the risk of SSc.