Association between IRAK1 rs3027898 and miRNA-499 rs3746444 polymorphisms and rheumatoid arthritis : A case control study and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The IRAK1 and miR-499 polymorphisms play an important role in the etiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Several studies have been carried out to estimate the association between IRAK1 rs3027898 and miR-499 rs3746444 and RA risk; however, the results were inconsistent. AIM: A case control study was carried out to explore the association between IRAK1 rs3027898 and miR-499 rs3746444 and the RA risk in a Chinese population. Meta-analyses combining present with previous studies were conducted to further explore the association. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 386 RA patients were enrolled along with 576 matched healthy controls. Genotyping was performed by using TaqMan genotyping assays on Fluidigm 192.24 system. For the meta-analysis, a systematic literature search was conducted to identify all relevant studies. RESULTS: This case control study showed that the IRAK1 rs3027898 C allele was associated with increased risk of RA with an odds ratio (OR) = 1.4 and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) = 1.093-1.793, P = 0.008 but miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphisms were not significantly associated with the risk for RA. The meta-analyses included a total of 4 case control studies on IRAK1 rs3027898 and 4 studies on miR-499 rs3746444. The IRAK1 rs3027898 C allele had an overall OR of 1.268 (95 % CI = 1.130-1.424, P < 0.001). After stratification by ethnicity the C allele had an OR of 1.238 (95 % CI = 1.096-1.398, P = 0.001) in Asians. No association between miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and RA was found in the overall and Asian populations. CONCLUSION: The results from our case control study and the meta-analyses indicate that the IRAK1 rs3027898 C allele is significantly associated with an increased risk of RA, especially in Asians.

A bibliometric study of literature on SLE research in PubMed (2002-2011).

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to study the distribution regularity, development tendency and research hot spots of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) literature published in journals indexed in PubMed over a 10-year period using the bibliometric analysis method. METHODS: Citations from 2002 to 2011 were downloaded from the PubMed database. The core of the search was the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) "Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic." The period of study was set from 2002 to 2011. RESULTS: A total of 14,053 articles were retrieved. These articles were published in 1627 different journals, nine journals contributing to one-third of all the literature. The first three journals containing the most articles were CONCLUSION: SLE has become a field of interest over the period 2002 to 2011. However, lupus research publications in developing countries have lagged behind.

Increased expression of paxillin is found in human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a tissue microarray study.

Oesophageal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Currently, the tumour, node, metastasis (TNM) staging system is the primary method for determining its extent and prognosis, however, data suggest this system does not predict prognosis accurately. Research has, therefore, concentrated on searching for specific biomarkers. Paxillin has been shown to play an important role in controlling cell spread and migration. Its over-expression is considered to correlate with the prognosis of some types of cancers, however, the relationship between paxillin expression and clinical outcome in oesophageal cancer has not been investigated. This study determined the expression of paxillin by immunohistochemistry on the tissue microarray of 100 oesophageal squamous cell cancer patients followed up for a mean of 55 months. Paxillin was over-expressed in tumours in 27/100 cases, compared with 6/100 cases for adjacent non-tumoural cells. No correlation occurred between expression of paxillin and overall patient survival, hence paxillin is not an effective prognostic marker in these patients.