The aim of this study was to perform an association study between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs2910164 G>C and rs3746444 T>C in pre-miRNA (hsa-mir-146a and hsa-mir-499) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Han Chinese population. 208 Han Chinese patients with RA and 240 healthy controls were recruited in this study. The SNPs was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and rheumatoid factor (RF) was measured by rate nephelometry. The genotype frequencies between cases and controls were compared by χ(2) analysis. No significant association between the SNPs (rs2910164 and rs3746444) and RA was observed (P = 0.631 and 0.775, respectively), and the SNPs did not show any association with the RF-positive (P = 0.631 and 0.775, respectively). However, there was a significant difference on the level of anti-CCP antibody between different genotypes in rs3746444 (P = 0.007). The heterozygote CT had significantly higher level of anti-CCP antibody compared with homozygote CC and TT (P = 0.054 and 0.003, respectively). We first investigated the association between the SNPs (rs2910164 G>C and rs3746444 T>C) in the pre-miRNA (hsa-mir-146a and hsa-mir-499) and RA in a Han Chinese population. We did not find a significant association between the SNPs and the susceptibility to RA, while the SNP rs3746444 may affect anti-CCP antibody production.

To determine the lifetime prevalence and diverse profiles of types of childhood maltreatment (CM) in a high-risk clinical sample using standardized assessment tools (Child Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ) in China, Shanghai, 2090 subjects were sampled from the Shanghai Mental Health Centre. Personality disorder (PD) was assessed using the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire (PDQ-4+) and subjects were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II). CTQ was used to assess CM in five domains (emotional abuse, EA; physical abuse, PA; sexual abuse, SA; emotional neglect, EN; and physical neglect, PN). The prevalence estimate of EA in the sample is 22.2%, followed by 17.8% of PA, and 12.5% of SA. The prevalence estimate was more frequent in PN (65.0%) and in EN (34.0%) than in childhood abuse (EA, PA and SA). It seems that males reported more PA and females reported more SA, the older subjects reported more neglect and the younger subjects reported more abuse. There was a higher prevalence of EA and SA in borderline PD patients (44.4%, 22.5%), PA in antisocial PD patients (38.9%). Multi-PD patients reported more forms of CM in childhood. Additionally, factor analysis of CTQ items confirmed factorial validity by identifying a five-factor structure that explained 50% of the total variance. These findings support the view that prevalence of CM was commonly experienced in clinical population during their childhood, especially for subjects with PDs. Factorial validity in PN needs to be further improved, and can in part be culturally explained.