TNF-α polymorphisms might influence predisposition to periodontitis: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) polymorphisms might influence predisposition to periodontitis, but the results of already published studies were still controversial and ambiguous. So the authors designed this meta-analysis to more precisely estimate relationship between TNF-α polymorphisms and periodontitis by pooling the results of already published related studies. Methods: The authors searched Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science and CNKI for already published studies. Forty-five already published studies were pooled analyzed in this meta-analysis. Results: The crude pooled meta-analyses results showed that distributions of TNF-α rs361525, rs1800629, rs1800630 and rs1799964 polymorphisms among patients and controls differed significantly, which suggested that these polymorphisms might influence predisposition to periodontitis in the general population. We also got similar significant results for rs361525, rs1800629, rs1800630 and rs1799964 polymorphisms in subgroup analyses in Asians. The crude findings were further subjected to Bonferroni correction to account for multiple comparisons. For rs361525, rs1800629 and rs1799964 polymorphisms, basically no changes of results were detected. But for rs1800630 polymorphism, the results were no longer significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggested that TNF-α rs361525, rs1800629 and rs1799964 polymorphisms might influence predisposition to periodontitis, particularly in Asians.