Objective: The main aim of this study was to investigate the association of polymorphisms in long non-coding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) with the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in a Chinese population.
Methods: A total of 245 ESCC patients and 490 gender- and age-matched cancer-free controls were genotyped for four tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of MALAT1 (rs3200401 C > T, rs1122709 C > G, rs664589 C > G, and rs619586 A > G). Statistical analyses including chi-squared test and logistic regression were performed to identify the association between the tag SNPs and risk of ESCC, and false discovery rate (FDR) <25% was applied to adjust for multiple comparisons.
Results: We found that rs3200401 C > T polymorphism of MALAT1 was significantly associated with increased risk of ESCC (CT vs CC: adjusted OR =1.59, 95% CI =1.07–2.35, P =0.021; TT vs CC: adjusted OR =2.27, 95% CI =1.04–4.96, P =0.039; dominant model [CT+TT vs CC]: adjusted OR =1.68, 95% CI =1.16–2.43, P =0.006). In the stratified analysis, rs3200401 TT and CT/TT genotypes were associated with increased risk of ESCC compared with CC genotype in subgroup of never drinking (TT vs CC: adjusted OR =2.34, 95% CI =1.02–5.34, P =0.044; CT/TT vs CC: adjusted OR =1.52, 95% CI =1.02–2.26, P =0.041). However, compared with AA genotype, MALAT1 rs619586 GG was associated with decreased risk of ESCC in ever drinking subgroup (GG vs AA: adjusted OR =0.38, 95% CI =0.15–0.99, P =0.049). The results remained significant after FDR adjustment (FDR value <0.25) except for the comparison between rs619586 GG and AA genotype in ever drinking subgroup.
Conclusion: Taken together, our findings proposed that polymorphism rs3200401 C > T in MALAT1 gene is associated with increased risk of ESCC. Since the association between rs619586 A > G polymorphism and ESCC risk was not significant after FDR adjustment, there was a minor possibility that rs619586 A > G might be a protective factor for ESCC.
Keywords: MALAT1, polymorphism, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, single nucleotide polymorphism, susceptibility