Bladder cancer (BC) is the ninth most frequent malignancies in the world and the occurrence of this disease has dramatically increased in recent years. Integrins have been demonstrated to play an important role in the development and progression of BC. However, the association between polymorphisms in integrin genes and BC susceptibility was still unclear. A number of studies mainly focused on polymorphisms in the coding regions of integrin genes previously, while in this study, polymorphisms in the 3' untranslated regions (3'UTR) were investigated in Chinese Han population. According to previous study, seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in predicted microRNA (miRNA) target sites were chosen as potential targets. And four SNPs including rs11902171, rs2675, rs17664, and rs1062484, were finally examined for their effect on BC risk and clinical prognosis. These four polymorphisms were genotyped by using the high-resolution melting method (HRM) in 317 BC patients with long-time follow-up together with 317 age-matched healthy controls. AC carriers of rs2675 in ITGB5 were associated with an increased risk of BC (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.02-2.03). No significant relationship was detected between these SNPs and the recurrence-free survival time of overall study population or non-muscle invasive BC subgroups in univariable analysis. In conclusion, rs2675 in miRNA binding sites of ITGB5 might be a potential target for BC susceptibility prediction.
Keywords: Integrin gene; bladder cancer; microRNA-binding sites; polymorphisms.