Association of Apolipoprotein E Polymorphism With Risk of Metabolic Syndrome: A Case-Control Study And Meta‐Analysis

Abstract Background: This study aimed to assess the genetic association between Apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphisms and susceptibility to metabolic syndrome (MetS) among the Tehran cardiometabolic genetic study (TCGS) participants. The results were then compared with similar studies in other populations using meta-analysis. Methods: the metabolic syndrome was defined according to the Joint Interim Statement (JIS) criteria. A total of 12282 subjects (5696 cases with metabolic syndrome and 6586 healthy controls) were genotyped using Human OmniExpress-24-v1-0 BeadChip. Subsequently, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases were searched using relevant Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms to collect all studies that examined the association between polymorphisms of the APOE gene and risk of MetS. Results: the presence of the APOE-ε4 allele could not significantly increase the risk of MetS in the carriers of this allele compared to individuals lacking the risk allele in the TCGS population (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.92 to 1.32). The meta-analysis results also indicated no significant association between the APOE-ε 4 allele and the risk of MetS. Conclusion: the frequency of the ε4 allele was almost same in the cases and the controls. Therefore, this allele cannot be considered as biomarker to predict the MetS susceptibility in the TCGS population or other populations with different genetic pools.