GST null polymorphisms may affect the risk of coronary artery disease: evidence from a meta-analysis

Background Whether glutathione S-transferase (GST) null polymorphisms, namely GSTM1 null, GSTP1 null and GSTT1 null polymorphisms, influence the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) or not remains unclear. Thus, the authors performed a meta-analysis to more robustly estimate associations between GST null polymorphisms and the risk of CAD by integrating the results of previous publications. Methods Medline, Embase, Wanfang, VIP and CNKI were searched comprehensively for eligible studies, and 45 genetic association studies were finally selected to be included in this meta-analysis. Results We found that GSTM1 null polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of CAD in overall population (OR = 1.37, p = 0.003) and mixed population (OR = 1.61, p = 0.004), GSTP1 null polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of CAD in overall population (OR = 1.23, p = 0.03), whereas GSTT1 null polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of CAD in overall population (OR = 1.23, p = 0.02), Caucasians (OR = 1.23, p = 0.02) and East Asians (OR = 1.38, p < 0.0001). Conclusions This meta-analysis demonstrated that GSTM1 null, GSTP1 null and GSTT1 null polymorphisms were all significantly associated with an increased risk of CAD.