BACKGROUND: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a childhood inflammatory disease, which is a common cause of disability among the younger population. S100A12 protein level is found to be associated with the patients of JIA
though, the findings on this are inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association of S100A12 protein levels with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. METHODS: Relevant published studies up to December 2022 were identified by systematic literature searching on Embase, PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus for exploring the association of S100A12 protein levels with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The data analysis was performed using the R-4.4.0 software. RESULTS: We included 9 eligible studies on serum S100A12 protein levels in JIA and healthy controls, which encompassed 518 JIA patients and 345 healthy control subjects. The pooled analysis revealed that the serum S100A12 protein levels increased significantly (summary SMD = 2.18, 95% CI: 0.63 - 3.74, overall effect size z = 2.76, p <
0.01) in JIA subjects in comparison to healthy control subjects. The pooled results of subgroup analysis for the Europe and Asia group' studies were SMD = 2.75, (95% CI [-0.09 to 5.58]
p <
0.01) and SMD = 1.53, (95% CI [-0.27 to 3.32]
p <
0.01), respectively, and both groups based on geographical regions exhibited significant hetero-geneity (I2 = 97.0% and I2 = 98.0% respectively, p <
0.01). Similarly, in cohort and case-control study groups, the results were SMD = 1.70, (95% CI [0.36 to 3.04]
p <
0.01) and SMD = 1.29, (95% CI [0.03 to 2.55]
p <
0.01), respectively, and both groups based on study type also exhibited significant heterogeneity (I2 = 97.0% and I2 = 96.0%, respectively, p <
0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests that the S100A12 protein serum concentrations of JIA were significantly higher than those of healthy controls, which suggests that serum S100A12 protein could be a potential biomarker for JIA.