The effects of MIR137HG genetic polymorphisms on the susceptibility of alcohol-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in a Chinese male population.

Abstract

Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is one of the common and complicated diseases in the orthopedic clinic. Previous studies indicate that genetic factors play a crucial role in the occurrence of ONFH. This case-control study aimed to investigate the associations of MIR137HG genetic polymorphisms with the alcohol-induced ONFH risk. A total of 731 participants were recruited to detect the effect of MIR137HG SNPs on the alcohol-induced ONFH risk in a Chinese male population. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to evaluate the associations. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) was used to analyze the SNP-SNP interaction with the alcohol-induced ONFH risk. Our study showed that rs7549905 played a protective role in alcohol-induced ONFH risk (OR 0.57, p=0.045). Stratified analysis indicated that rs9440302 was associated with an increased risk of patients aged>45years (OR 2.00, p=0.038), and rs7549905 showed a reduced risk in patients aged≤45years (OR 0.43, p=0.023). In addition, we found that rs9440302 and rs7554283 exhibited a significantly increased susceptibility of III-IV grade alcohol-induced ONFH patients (OR 2.34, p=0.003; OR 2.13, p=0.011, respectively). We also observed that rs12138817 was related to an increased risk in patients with>21months of course (OR 1.77, p=0.043). Interestingly, rs17371457 showed a significant correlation with low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (p=0.040). Our study suggests that MIR137HG genetic variants are associated with the alcohol-induced ONFH susceptibility in a Chinese male population, which may give scientific evidence for exploring molecular mechanisms of the alcohol-induced ONFH.