The MIF -173G/C polymorphism and risk of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in a Chinese population

lymorphism and risk of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in a Chinese population Original Research (1754) Total Article Views Authors: Jin K, Ji X, Wang S, Song ZF, Jia X, Hou Z, Wang T, Wang M, Ni C Published Date May 2012 Volume 2012:4 Pages 37 - 42 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJICMR.S30329 Received: 29 January 2012 Accepted: 26 March 2012 Published: 14 May 2012 Kexin Jin,1,* Xiaoming Ji,1,* Shasha Wang,1 Zhifang Song,2 Xiaomin Jia,2 Zhiguo Hou,1 Ting Wang,1 Meilin Wang,1 Chunhui Ni1 1Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 2General Hospital of Xuzhou Mining Business Group Co, Ltd, Xuzhou, People's Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Objective: To investigate the possible relationship between macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) -173 polymorphism (rs755622) and susceptibility to coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in a Chinese population. Methods: A total of 699 patients with CWP and 677 controls were genotyped for the polymorphism by TaqMan method. Results: Our results showed that the MIF -173CC genotype was associated with a significantly decreased risk of CWP (adjusted odds ratio = 0.44, 95% confidence interval = 0.22–0.85), compared with the GG/GC genotype, particularly among smokers. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the functional MIF -173G/C polymorphism is involved in the etiology of CWP and susceptibility to this disease. Further studies are warranted to validate our findings.