The association between interleukin-6 gene -174G/C single nucleotide polymorphism and sepsis: an updated meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis

Yao Chen,
Yanyan Hu and
Zhenju SongEmail author View ORCID ID profile

BMC Medical Genetics201920:35

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12881-019-0766-2

Received: 23 November 2018
Accepted: 14 February 2019
Published: 19 February 2019

Open Peer Review reports

Abstract

Background

This article intends to explore the association between interleukin-6 gene (IL-6) -174 G/C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the risk and mortality of sepsis by conducting this updated meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.

Methods

References were made to PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure for studies available by September 2018. Each publication was screened for its eligibility and data accessible. Statistical analysis was conducted on Stata 14.1 and TSA software 0.9.5.10 Beta

Results

Twenty studies (including 3282 cases and 4926 controls) and eight studies (including 610 cases and 1856 controls) were respectively enrolled in the analysis on the association between IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism and the risk and mortality of sepsis. The results did not present any association between IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism and the risk and mortality of sepsis. An exception was that IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism was correlated with worse outcome in non-adults in recessive model, co-dominant model (CC vs. GG) and allelic model, while trial sequential analysis revealed it could be a false positive result nevertheless.

Conclusions

IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism is not associated with the risk and mortality of sepsis. Trial sequential analysis showed that a large sample size was needed to get a more reliable result of the association between IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism and sepsis in non-adults.