Association between transcription factor 7-like 2 rs7903146 polymorphism and diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis.

As one of the vascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus, the incidence of diabetes retinopathy is greatly increasing worldwide. Both genetic and environmental factors are involved in the pathologies. A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the association between transcription factor 7-like 2 polymorphism (rs7903146) and type 2 diabetic retinopathy. Published literature from PubMed, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were retrieved. Pooled odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated to estimate the strength of the association. Eight studies including 6422 participants were included in the final meta-analysis. Our analysis provides substantial evidence that the rs7903146 variant is significantly associated with the risk of diabetic retinopathy in Caucasian populations while not in East Asian populations. The variant of rs7903146 appeared more likely to be a promising genetic biomarker of diabetic retinopathy in Caucasians.