Association of Gene Polymorphisms with the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Chinese Han Population

The aim of the present study was to explore the genetic association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in interleukin-16 () gene with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) susceptibility in a Chinese Han population. In total, 133 T2DM patients and 127 healthy controls matched by age and gender were recruited in the case-control study. gene rs4778889 and rs11556218 polymorphisms were genotyped in the two groups via polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Differences in genotype and allele distributions between groups were compared by the χ test. All the comparisons were adjusted for age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) by logistic regression. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the association strength between gene polymorphism and T2DM risk. The TG genotype and G allele frequencies of rs11556218 increased remarkably in the case group than that in controls (45.86 vs 33.86%; 29.70 vs 20.87%), and the differences reached a significant level (<0.05). After adjusting for age, gender, and BMI, the differences still reached a significant level (<0.05). Rs11556218 TG genotype carriers had a 1.769-fold increased risk of developing T2DM (OR = 1.769, 95% CI = 1.045-2.994), and G allele was also associated with an increased risk of T2DM (OR = 1.639, 95% CI = 1.087-2.471). rs4778889 polymorphism showed no significant association with T2DM risk. gene rs11556218 polymorphism was significantly associated with T2DM susceptibility in the Chinese Han population, while rs4778889 was not.