Meta-analysis of the genetic association between maternal GNB3 C825T polymorphism and risk of pre-eclampsia

Background: The relationship between the C825T polymorphism of GNB3 (encoding G-protein β3 subunit) and pre-eclampsia risk is unclear.

Objective: To systematically explore the association between GNB3 C825T and pre-eclampsia.

Search strategy: PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched to September 1, 2020, using keywords including "GNB3 C825T" and "pre-eclampsia".

Selection criteria: Case-control and cohort studies investigating the relationship between GNB3 C825T polymorphism and pre-eclampsia were included.

Data collection and analysis: Two reviewers collected the data independently and calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Main results: The meta-analysis involved eight studies from seven publications, including 2071 cases and 3419 controls. Overall analysis showed that GNB3 C825T was associated with increased pre-eclampsia risk in the recessive model (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01-1.44; P = 0.04). Subgroup analysis stratified by Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium revealed a relationship between GNB3 C825T and increased risk of pre-eclampsia in the allelic (OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.34-2.05; P < 0.001), homozygous (OR, 2.12, 95% CI, 1.04-4.32; P = 0.04), dominant (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.18-3.11; P = 0.009), and recessive (OR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.03-2.81; P = 0.04) models.

Conclusions: Maternal GNB3 C825T polymorphism seems to be a risk factor for pre-eclampsia.