Role of polymorphisms in miR-146a, miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 in the development of ovarian cancer in a Chinese population

Here, we carried out an investigation of the relationship between miR-146a (rs2910164), miR-149 (rs2292832), miR-196a2 (rs11614913) and miR-499 (rs3746444) polymorphisms and development of ovarian cancer in a Chinese population. With a hospital-based case-control design, 155 patients and 342 control subjects were involved in the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University between March 2012 and January 2015. The genotyping of the miR-146a, miR-149, miR-196a2 and miR-499 were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Unconditional multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the GG genotype and G allele of miR-499 had a higher risk of ovarian cancer compared to the AA genotype, and the adjusted ORs (95% CI) for the GG genotype and G allele were 2.40 (1.13-5.08) and 1.46 (1.06-2.00), respectively. However, no significant correlation was observed between the miR-146a, miR-149 and miR-196a2 polymorphisms and the ovarian cancer risk. In conclusion, our study indicates that the miR-499 polymorphism is associated with risk of ovarian cancer, suggesting that miR-499 polymorphism could be a marker for ovarian cancer development.