Meta-analysis for the Association of Apolipoprotein E ε2/ε3/ε4 Polymorphism with Coronary Heart Disease.

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a multifactorial disease and is thought to have a polygenic basis. Apolipoprotein E ( APOE ) gene is one such candidate with its common e2/e3/e4 polymorphism in CHD. In recent years, numerous case-control studies have investigated the relationship of APOE polymorphism with CHD risk. However, the results are confusing. Methods: To clarify this point, we undertook a meta-analysis based on 14 published studies including 5746 CHD cases and 19,120 controls. Crude odds ratios ( OR s) with 95% confidence intervals ( CI s) were assessed for association using a random-effects or fixed-effects model using STATA version 10 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA). Results: Overall, the analysis showed that carriers of APOE e2 allele decreased risk for CHD (e2 allele vs. e3 allele: OR = 0.82, 95% CI : 0.75-0.90, P OR = 0.81, 95% CI : 0.73-0.89, P OR = 1.34, 95% CI : 1.15-1.57, P Conclusions: Taken together, our meta-analysis supported a genetic association between APOE gene and CHD. e4 increased the risk of CHD, whereas e2 decreased the risk of CHD.