Meta-Analysis Reveals a Specific Association of the Pnpla3 I148M Polymorphism with Alt Level in Adolescents

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate potential link between the PNPLA3 rs738409 polymorphism and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels through an evidence-based study. Materials & Methods: Electronic literature databases, including PubMed, Embase and the Institute for Scientific Information, were searched for relevant studies. Pooling standardized mean differences for quantitative variables and summary odds ratios (OR) were respectively calculated using per-allele comparison. Results: Although a genotype–phenotype association was inconsistent in adults, this genetic effect was stable in adolescents. There was an approximate increase of 23% in ALT value, and 1.99-fold higher ALT elevation per risk allele increase with low heterogeneity. Conclusion: The PNPLA3 rs738409 polymorphism can have a differentiated influence on ALT level. Our meta-analysis provides reference data for the adjustment of diverse susceptibility due to the rs738409 polymorphism when evaluating liver injury in various populations.

Keywords::

• alanine aminotransferase
• meta-analysis
• patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3
• systematic review

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank L Zhou for conceiving and designing the experiments; H Ning and X He for performing the experiments; Z Liu, H Ning and S Que for analyzing the data; L Zhou for contributing reagents/materials/analysis tools; Z Liu for writing the manuscript; and L Zhou for manuscript review.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by National S&T Major Project (No. 2012ZX10002017). No funding body had any influence or input into the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National S&T Major Project (No. 2012ZX10002017). No funding body had any influence or input into the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.