Abstract
BACKGROUND: Sepsis in children is one of the main causes of death in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs); however, the pathogenesis of sepsis is not fully clear. Previous studies revealed that many genetic variations were related to sepsis susceptibility. A long non-coding RNA SOX2 overlapping transcript (SOX2OT) may play a role in mitochondrial homeostasis and antioxidative activity, but the relationship between the lncRNA SOX2OT polymorphism and sepsis susceptibility has not been reported. METHODS: In this study, 474 pediatric sepsis patients and 678 healthy controls were recruited from southern China. After genotyping, the strength of the associations was evaluated through odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The SOX2OT rs9839776 T allele was associated with decreased susceptibility to sepsis in southern Chinese children (TT/CT vs CC adjusted OR = 0.778, 95% CI = 0.610-0.992; P = 0.0431). Moreover, the difference in susceptibility was greater in children of age >60 months (adjusted OR = 0.458, 95% CI = 0.234-0.896; P = 0.0225), survivors (adjusted OR = 0.758, 95% CI = 0.585-0.972; P = 0.0358), males (adjusted OR = 0.655, 95% CI = 0.479-0.894; P = 0.0077) and the sepsis subgroup (adjusted OR = 0.548, 95% CI = 0.343-0.876; P = 0.0120). CONCLUSION: The rs9839776 T allele may contribute to decreased sepsis risk in Chinese children. Future studies with a larger sample size are needed to verify these results.