Signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) is a transcription factor involved in the signaling pathways of several cytokines, playing an essential role in the development of inflammation in various immune-mediated diseases. Genetic association studies have shown that the STAT4 gene was significantly associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Spanish and Caucasian populations. However, these associations in other ethnic populations remain unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the role of the STAT4 rs7574865 and rs7582694 polymorphisms on IBD in 562 unrelated Chinese Han subjects by assessing distributions of genotypes and allele frequencies. Results showed that neither rs7574865 [Crohn's disease (CD): P=0.66, odds ratio (OR) = 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-1.21; ulcerative colitis (UC): P=0.43, OR=0.85, 95% CI 0.56-1.28; IBD: P=0.52, OR=0.93, 95% CI 0.73-1.17] nor rs7582694 (CD: P=0.40, OR=1.12, 95% CI 0.86-1.44; UC: P=0.50, OR=0.86, 95% CI 0.56-1.33; IBD: P=0.62, OR=1.06, 95% CI 0.83-1.36) was significantly associated with IBD, although the genotype frequency of rs7574865 varied in patients and the controls. In conclusion, our data did not support that STAT4 variants contribute to IBD susceptibility in the Chinese Han population.
Keywords: Chinese Han population; inflammatory bowel disease; signal transducer and activator of transcription 4; single-nucleotide polymorphisms.