Association of family sequence similarity gene 13A gene polymorphism and interstitial lung disease susceptibility: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND: Among present reports, the T/G allelic variation at the rs2609255 locus of the family sequence similarity gene 13A (FAM13A) was considerable associated with susceptibility to interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). In this study, we summarized relevant studies and applied a meta‐analysis to explore whether the polymorphism of rs2609255 site of the FAM13A gene can be utilized to predict susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients or rheumatoid arthritis‐associated interstitial lung disease (RA‐ILD) or silicosis patients in different populations for the first time. METHODS: We compared the frequency of G allele on rs2609255 site of FAM13A between the control subjects and IPF or RA‐ILD or silicosis patients from different races by using meta‐analysis. Nine studies were involved in this meta‐analysis, including five IPF studies, two RA‐ILD studies, and two silicosis studies, and containing 14 subgroups. We conducted separate meta‐analyses for different races. RESULTS: In all individuals, a substantial link between the G allele of the FAM13A rs2609255 polymorphism and IPF (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.33–1.63, p < 0.00001) was indicated. After dividing by ethnicity, the G allele was illustrated to be considerable correlation with IPF in Asian (OR: 2.63, 95% CI: 1.81–3.81, p < 0.00001) and with RA‐ILD individuals (OR: 3.27, 95% CI: 1.26–8.49, p = 0.01). Conversely, there was no correlation with the G allele and IPF in European individuals (OR: 1.27, 95% CI: 0.89–1.83, p = 0.13) or silicosis in Chinese individuals (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 0.99–1.46, p = 0.07). CONCLUSION: This is the first meta‐analysis that provides evidence that the rs2609255 of FAM13A might increase susceptibility to RA‐ILD, and IPF especially in Asian but not in European individuals, and not be correlated with silicosis in Chinese individuals, which indicated the differences in susceptibility to disease by race were noteworthy.