Purpose: A meta-analysis was undertaken to examine the correlation between ankylosing spondylitis (AS) progression and serum levels of interleukin-23 (IL-23) in AS patients. Methods: PubMed, EBSCO, Cochrane Library database, Springer link, Elsevier Science Direct, Web of science, Wanfang (Chinese) Database, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) (last updated search in Match, 2017) were exhaustively searched for pertinent case-control studies using keywords related to IL-23 and

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... The search results were screened using presupposed inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the data from selected high-quality studies was analyzed with STATA software11.0. Results: Seventeen case-control studies were finally included in this meta-analysis and contained a combined total of 909 AS patients and 757 healthy controls. The main result of this meta-analysis showed that serum IL-23 levels in AS patients were strikingly higher than healthy controls (SMD = 1.078, 95% CI = 0.963~1.193, P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis based on ethnicity demonstrated that serum IL-23 level was also markedly higher in AS patients, both in Asians and Caucasians. ESR, CRP levels and BASDAI score were distinctly associated with serum IL-23 levels. Conclusion: Meta-analysis of seventeen high-quality studies revealed a strong correlation between elevated IL-23 serum levels and AS susceptibility. Therefore, serum IL-23 levels could confers risk susceptibility to AS, and therefore could be used as markers for the development of AS.