ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism and the risk of coronary heart disease: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

ATP-binding cassette transporter 1 (ABCB1) plays a critical role in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. Emerging evidence suggests that common functional polymorphisms in the ABCB1 gene might have an impact on an individual's susceptibility to coronary heart disease (CHD), but individually published results are inconclusive. This meta-analysis aimed to derive a more precise estimation of the relationship between ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism and CHD risk.

METHOD

An extensive literary search for relevant studies was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CISCOM, CINAHL, Google Scholar, China BioMedicine (CBM), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases from their inception through August 1st, 2013. Meta-analysis was performed using the STATA 12.0 software. The crude odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

RESULTS

Seven clinical studies were included with a total of 13,074 CHD patients, including 378 variant angina pectoris (VAP) patients, 2290 myocardial infarction (MI) patients, and 10,406 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Our meta-analysis results indicated that ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism may be associated with an increased risk of CHD, especially for MI and ACS among Caucasian populations. However, no statistically significant association was found between ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism and VAP risk, especially among Asian populations. Meta-regression analyses showed that clinical subtype and ethnicity may be the main sources of heterogeneity. No publication bias was detected in this meta-analysis.

CONCLUSION

The current meta-analysis suggests that ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism may contribute to the risk of CHD, especially for MI and ACS, among Caucasian populations. Thus, detection of ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism may be a promising biomarker for the early detection of CHD.