| Abstract: | BACKGROUND: Adiponectin (AdipoQ) is an adipose-derived plasma protein that plays an important role in hepatic lipoprotein-lipid metabolism. Emerging evidence have shown that two common polymorphisms (T45 G and G276 T) in the AdipoQ gene may contribute to increasing susceptibility to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); however individually published studies show inconclusive results. This meta-analysis aimed to derive a more precise estimation of the association of AdipoQ T45 G (rs2241766 T>G) and G276 T (rs1501299 G>T) polymorphisms with NAFLD risk. METHOD: Potential relevant studies were identified covering the following databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Bio-medicine Database (CBM), and Chinese Sci-tech Journals databases. Statistical analyses were calculated using the version 12.0 STATA software (Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA). Odds ratios (ORs) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. RESULT: Ten case-control studies were included with a total of 2,672 subjects, of these 1,117 being NAFLD patients and 1,555 being healthy controls. Our meta-analysis results revealed that the T variant of AdipoQ rs2241766 T>G polymorphism may be associated with an increased risk of NAFLD. There was also a significant association between the G variant of AdipoQ rs1501299 G>T polymorphism and an increased risk of NAFLD. Country-stratified analysis indicated that a higher AdipoQ rs2241766 T>G polymorphism was closely related with an increased risk of NAFLD in Chinese and Indian populations (all Ps < 0.05); a similar result was observed in Chinese populations between AdipoQ rs2241766 T>G polymorphism and an increased risk of NAFLD (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the current meta-analysis indicates that AdipoQ rs2241766 T>G and rs1501299 G>T polymorphisms may contribute to an increasing susceptibility to NAFLD. Moreover, this meta-analysis also suggests for future larger studies with stratified case-control population, and greater focus on the gene-environment interactions regarding NAFLD susceptibility for valid studies. |
