Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a chronic degenerative osteoarthropathy with unclear etiology. To provide current evidence supporting a genetic predisposition for KBD, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature on the genetic epidemiology of KBD. The PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wan Fang Data were searched up to August 2015 for articles published in English and Chinese. Genome-wide and exome sequencing, linkage, and case-control association studies for any genetic variants associated with KBD were included. Meta-analysis was performed for all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were evaluated in two or more studies. The effect size was summarized as odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) by fixed and random effects models. A total of 24 articles were systematically reviewed. Eleven short tandem repeats on chromosomes 2, 11 and 12, 34 SNPs in 12 genes, as well as copy number variant 452 were identified as KBD susceptibility factors in individual studies. The meta-analysis of the GPX1 rs1050450, DIO2 rs225014, TrxR2 rs5748469 and HLA-DRB1 rs7745040 failed to reveal any associations with KBD. However, the meta-analysis of HLA-DRB1 rs9275295 allele A was associated with KBD (OR = 1.737, 95 % CI: 1.002-3.012). In addition, seven haplotypes in GPX1, GPX4, HLA-DRB1 and GDF5 genes also showed significant associations with KBD. In conclusions, our study could identify a number of genetic markers associated with KBD. However, the evidence does not currently support a strong association between the specific variants and KBD because of the limited number of studies, and in the future, more rigorous studies are needed to confirm KBD's links with these variants.
Keywords: Genetics; Kashin–Beck disease; Polymorphism; Systematic review.