vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and risk of coronary artery disease: findings from a meta-analysis with 5259 cases

Background/Aims: Previous studies evaluating the association between ApaI, FokI, TaqI, and BsmI polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) have produced inconsistent results. The present meta-analysis of eligible studies was conducted to reveal whether this polymorphism plays a role in susceptibility to CAD.
Literature search of Medline and EMBASE databases were conducted to identify all eligible studies. Odd ratios (OR) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess the strength of association in the dominant model, recessive model, allelic model, homozygotes contrast, and heterozygote contrast.
a total of nine case-control studies with 5259 CAD cases and 1981 healthy controls were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, we found no significant association between the ApaI, FokI, TaqI, and BsmI polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor gene and CAD risk in any genetic model tested (P 0.05). Moreover, in subgroup analysis by ethnicity, no significant association was evident between these polymorphisms and susceptibility to CAD in Caucasians and east-Asians in all models.
This meta-analysis suggests that ApaI, FokI, TaqI, and BsmI polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor gene might not be associated with susceptibility to CAD. Further studies are needed to confirm our results.