Background: Recent data from human and animal studies have shown an upregulated expression of advanced glycosylation end product-specific receptor (RAGE) in human atherosclerotic plaques 1 and in retina, messangial, and aortic vessels, suggesting an important role of RAGE in the pathogenesis of atherothrombotic diseases. In the past few years, the relationship between RAGE polymorphisms (-429T/C, -374T/A, and G82S) and coronary heart disease (CHD) has been reported in various ethnic groups; however, these studies have yielded contradictory results.
Methods: PubMed, ISI web of science, EMBASE and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were systematically searched to identify relevant studies. Data were abstracted independently by two reviewers. A meta-analysis was performed to examine the association between RAGE polymorphisms and susceptibility to CHD. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated.
Results: A total of 17 studies including 4343 patients and 5402 controls were involved in this meta-analysis. Overall, no significant results were observed for -429T/C (OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.92-1.12, P = 0.78), -374T/A (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.98-1.26, P = 0.09) and G82S (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.86-1.45, P = 0.41) polymorphism. In the stratified analyses according to ethnicity, sample size, CHD endpoint and Hardy-Weinberg status, no evidence of any gene-disease association was obtained.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrates that there is no association between the RAGE -429T/C, -374T/A and G82S polymorphisms and CHD.