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Genetic diversity of the apolipoprotein E gene and diabetic nephropathy: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

In the past decade, a number of case–control studies have been carried out to investigate the relationship between the ApoE polymorphism and diabetic nephropathy. However, the results have been inconclusive. To investigate this inconsistency, we performed a meta-analysis of all available studies dealing with the relationship between the ApoE polymorphism and DN. The 23 studies in the meta- analysis included 6,012 diabetic patients with (n = 2,979) and without (n = 3,033) DN. The ApoE ε2 allele was significantly associated with DN (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.26–2.13; P(Z) = 0.00027), whereas the ε4 allele was non-significantly associated with DN (OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.78–1.11; P(Z) = 0.418). However, significant heterogeneity was detected. In further subgroup analyses, genotyping methods, outcome of cases and duration of diabetes in controls were found to explain some of the heterogeneity. Genotypic analysis also found a strong association between the ε2 carriers and DN (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.22–2.13; P(Z) = 0.001) and indicated that ε4 tended to have a marginally significant protective effect for DN (OR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.65–1.03; P(Z) = 0.085). The results of our meta-analysis support a genetic association between the ApoE polymorphism and DN. ε2 increases the risk of DN in diabetes patients, while ε4 trends to be protective. These findings may have implications for therapeutic intervention in diabetic nephropathy.

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Abbreviations

DN:

Diabetic Nephropathy

ApoE:

Apolipoprotein E

HWE:

Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

OR:

Odds Ratio

CI:

Confidence Interval

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants (2006CB910600, 2007CB947300, 07DZ22917, and 09DJ1400601), by the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B205), the Shanghai Municipality Science & Technology Commission (2008ZD001, 05JC14090,07DJ14005). the Chinese Academy of Sciences(KSCX2-YW-R-01) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30700203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bio-X Center, Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders (Ministry of Education), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

    Yang Li, Kefu Tang, Zhao Zhang, Ming Zhang, Zhen Zeng, Zangdong He, Lin He & Chunling Wan

  2. Institutes for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, Shanghai, 200031, China

    Yang Li, Kefu Tang, Zhao Zhang, Ming Zhang, Zhen Zeng, Zangdong He, Lin He & Chunling Wan

  3. Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, 130 Dongan Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Lin He

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  1. Yang Li
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Correspondence to Lin He or Chunling Wan.

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Li, Y., Tang, K., Zhang, Z. et al. Genetic diversity of the apolipoprotein E gene and diabetic nephropathy: a meta-analysis. Mol Biol Rep 38, 3243–3252 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-010-9999-z

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