Influence of apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism on development of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Chinese Han population: A meta-analysis of 29 studies

Abstract Objectives Published data regarding the association between apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene polymorphism and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk in Chinese Han population were inconclusive. To derive a more precise estimation of the relationship between this variant and T2DM risk in Chinese Han population, we performed this meta-analysis. Design and methods A computerized literature search was conducted to identify the relevant studies from PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CBMdisc, CNKI, and Google Scholar. Additionally, hand searching of the references of identified articles was performed. All the statistical tests were performed using Stata 11.0. Results A total of 29 articles with 4615 T2DM cases and 2867 controls were included in the present meta-analysis. The results showed evidence for significant association between ApoE gene polymorphism and T2DM risk (for e2/e3 vs. e3/e3: OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.12–1.68, P P P P  = 0.01; for e4 allele vs. e3 allele: OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.22–1.68, P Conclusions The results of this meta-analysis suggest that the ApoE e2 and e4 alleles may be associated with increased risks of T2DM and DN in Chinese Han population. Additional well-designed genome-wide association studies are required to confirm these results.