Association between Mannose-Binding Lectin Gene Polymorphisms and Hepatitis B Virus Infection: A Meta-Analysis

<div><p>Objective</p><p>The results of studies on the relation between Mannose-binding lectin gene (<i>mbl</i>2) polymorphism and HBV infection were contradictory and inconclusive. In order to shed a light on these inconsistent findings and to clarify the role of <i>mbl</i>2 polymorphisms in susceptibility or progression of chronic hepatitis B (CHB), a meta-analysis was performed.</p> <p>Methods</p><p>PubMed and Embase were searched for available articles. A meta-analysis was performed to examine the association between <i>mbl</i>2 polymorphisms and chronicity or progression of hepatitis B infection. Odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) served as indexes.</p> <p>Results</p><p>A total of 17 eligible studies were involved, including 2151 healthy controls (HC), 1293 spontaneous recovered (SR) patients with acute infection, 2337cases with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and 554 cases with progressive hepatitis B. There was no evidence of significant association between <i>mbl</i>2 exon1 polymorphisms and CHB risk in any genetic model or pairwise comparisons when compared with HC group or SR group. In the stratified analysis of ethnic groups, also no obvious relation between <i>mbl</i>2 polymorphism and CHB risk was identified. There was still no significant association between the complete <i>mbl</i>2 genotypic profile (including both the exon1 and the promoter gene) polymorphisms and CHB risk, as compared with SR group. However, it was found that there was an association between the <i>mbl</i>2 AO/OO genotype and severe hepatitis B (SHB) or liver cirrhosis (LC) (LC vs. HC:OR=3.66, 95%CI, 2.38-5.63; SHB vs. HC, OR=3.88, 95%CI, 2.26–6.64), but there was no relationship between the <i>mbl</i>2 AO/OO genotype and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (OR=1.26, 95%CI, 0.82-1.94).</p> <p>Conclusion</p><p>The present meta-analysis indicated that <i>mbl</i>2 exon1 polymorphisms might not significantly associate with chronicity of HBV infection, but might be significantly related to the progressive HBV such as SHB and LC.</p>