Angiotensin II type I receptor A1166C polymorphism increases the risk of pregnancy hypertensive disorders: Evidence from a meta-analysis

Pregnancy hypertensive disorders (PHDs) are considered to be a multifactorial and multisystemic disorder with a genetic predisposition. Alterations in the renin–angiotensin system are considered to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of the PHDs. However, results from published studies on the association between the angiotensin II type-1 receptor (AT1R) A1166C (rs5186) gene polymorphism and the risk of PHDs are conflicting. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate whether an association exists between AT1R A1166C gene polymorphism and PHDs in epidemiologic studies. We searched the PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese Biomedicine Literature (CBM) databases from their inception to July 2012. A total of 18 case–control studies, including a total of 1635 cases and 1934 controls, were available for this analysis. A significantly positive correlation was observed between the C allele and the AC/CC genotypes with PHDs in an overall comparison. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, the results suggested that the C allele and the AC/CC genotypes were associated with risk of PHDs in Asians. Our findings indicate that the AT1R gene 1166C allele and the AC/CC genotypes were positively associated with the PHDs, especially in Asians. However, well-designed multicenter studies with a larger sample size should be conducted to confirm the results.