The association between vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms and stroke: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies showed that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms were linked with the regularity of stroke, but the results remained controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the associations between VEGF gene polymorphisms and the risk of stroke. METHODS: A systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, Wed of Science, The Cochrane Library, Elsevier, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biology Medicine disc, WanFang Data, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, and Science paper Online was conducted. Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the strength of associations. Begger funnel plot and Egger test were used to estimate the publication bias of included studies. Heterogeneity assumption was assessed by Cochran Chi-squared-based Q-statistic test and I test. RESULTS: Thirteen publications including 23 trails with a total of 3794 stroke patients and 3094 control subjects were enrolled. About 3747 cases and 2868 controls for +936C/T, 2134 cases and 1424 controls for -2578C/A, and 2187 cases and 1650 controls for -1154G/A were examined, respectively. The results indicated that VEGF +936C/T (T vs C, OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.01-1.40) or -2578C/A (A vs C, OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.02-1.27) was positively associated with the risk of stroke, whereas there was no association between -1154G/A (A vs G, OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.87-1.11) polymorphism and stroke risk in our study. Among the subgroup analyses on ethnicity, the results showed that VEGF +936C/T was an increased risk of stroke in Asian population (T vs C, OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.01-1.44), but not -1154G/A. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that VEGF +936C/T and -2578C/A might be related to the risk of stroke, especially in the Asian population, but not -1154G/A.