Association between PPAR-γ2 Pro12Ala polymorphism and obesity: a meta-analysis.

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ2 (PPAR-γ2) gene has been reported in the pathogeny of obesity. However, the results have been inconsistent. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to acquire a more accurate assessment of the association between PPAR-γ2 Pro12Ala polymorphism and obesity. PubMed, Wan Fang (Chinese) databases, Chinese Biomedical Medical databases, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched to identify eligible studies. Finally, 25 studies (6491 cases and 8242 controls) were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The effect summary odds ratio (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI) was applied. Random-effects or fixed-effects model was performed based on the heterogeneity. STATA 12.0 was applied for this meta-analysis. The combined results showed that PPAR-γ Pro12Ala polymorphism was associated with the obesity risk (Ala vs. Pro: OR = 1.55, 95 % CI 1.34-1.80; Pro/Ala vs. Pro/Pro: OR = 1.54, 95 % CI 1.31-1.82; Ala/Ala + Pro/Ala vs. Pro/Pro: OR = 1.61, 95 % CI 1.36-1.90). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed that there were significant associations between PPAR-γ Pro12Ala polymorphism and obesity risk in Caucasians, Asians, and Mixed population. Subgroup analysis by obesity's cutoff points showed that the associations were found among the patients with the cutoff point of BMI ≥24 and BMI ≥30 but not among the patients with the cutoff point of BMI ≥95th percentile. These results suggested that PPAR-γ Pro12Ala polymorphism might be a risk factor for obesity susceptibility.