Background: NOD-2 is involved in the intracellular recognition of bacterial muramyl dipeptides, and three independent polymorphisms of this gene have been identified as risk factors for the development of Crohn's disease.
Patients and methods: To study the role of NOD-2 in gastric carcinogenesis, NOD-2 mutations (SNP5: P268S, SNP8: R702W, SNP12: G908R, and SNP13: 3020insC) were genotyped in 171 patients with gastric cancer and 153 controls.
Results: Applying a numerical model, SNP5 was found to carry a slightly increased risk (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.05-2.17, p = 0.027) for the development of gastric cancer, whereas SNP8 was similarly distributed between controls and patients with gastric cancer. SNP5 and 8 were found to be genetically linked in both groups (p < 0.02). The allele frequency of SNP12 and 13 were rare and therefore analyzed in subgroups only and not statistically analyzed due to the lack of statistical power.
Conclusion: NOD-2 is not a risk factor for gastric carcinogenesis in the Caucasian population.