The rs1625579 T>G polymorphism in the miRNA-137 gene confers a risk of early-onset Kawasaki disease in a southern Chinese population Di Che,1,* Jiawen Li,2,* Lanyan Fu,1,* Lei Pi,1 Xing Rong,2 Yanfei Wang,3 Yufen Xu,1 Ping Huang,3 Maoping Chu,2 Xiaoqiong Gu1,4 1Department of Clinical Biological Resource Bank, Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China; 2Children’s Heart Center, the Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital, Institute of Cardiovascular Development and Translational Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China; 3Department of Cardiology, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China; 4Department of Clinical Lab, Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) mainly manifests as excessive inflammation and vascular endothelial cell injury. This disease generally occurs in children younger than 5 years of age and is more severe in children younger than 12 months. KD affects males and females at a ratio of 1.5:1. Polymorphisms of the rs1625579 locus in the miR-137 gene are associated with schizophrenia susceptibility, and high glucose-induced upregulation of miR-137 in vascular endothelial cells promotes monocyte chemotaxis and inflammatory cytokine secretion in gestational diabetes mellitus. However, researchers have not reported whether rs1625579 is associated with KD susceptibility or onset. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between the miRNA-137 rs1625579 T>G polymorphism and KD susceptibility. Methods: TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction was applied to determine the genotypes of 532 patients with KD (365 males and 167 females) and 623 control subjects (402 males and 221 females). Results: Comparison of all cases with all controls revealed that the rs1625579 T>G polymorphism was not associated with KD susceptibility. However, a subgroup analysis revealed that subjects with the rs1625579 TG/GG genotypes exhibited a significantly higher onset risk for KD before 12 months of age than carriers of the TT genotype (adjusted age and gender odds rat