Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Gene Polymorphism (G-308A) and Dilated Cardiomyopathy

The issue that genetic polymorphism of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is debatable. We sought to investigate the potential role of TNF-α gene polymorphism (G-308A) in the susceptibility to dilated cardiomyopathy.We retrieved PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI to collect all articles which reported on the association between TNF-α G-308A polymorphism and dilated cardiomyopathy. Two authors used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) checklist to assess the quality of the included studies. The odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled in a specific genetic model to assess the association and Stata version 14.0 software was used.A total of 9 studies with 1338 patients and 1677 controls were included in this study. The results from this meta-analysis indicated that TNF-α G-308A polymorphism significantly increased the risk of dilated cardiomyopathy in heterozygous comparison (GA versus GG: OR = 1.87; 95%CI = 1.03-3.40; P < 0.05). The increased risk of DCM was also found in Asian populations using a dominant model and heterozygous comparison (GA+AA versus GG: OR = 2.00, 95%CI = 1.02-3.92, P < 0.05; GA versus GG: OR = 1.94, 95%CI = 1.23-3.06, P < 0.05).The current meta-analysis revealed that TNF-α gene polymorphism (G-308A) may be associated with the susceptibility to DCM.