Significant Association Between Adiponutrin and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk

ADPN I148M polymorphism has been consistently reported to play a role in liver-associated diseases, such as alcoholic liver disease, chronic hepatitis C, and liver fat and fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. This significant association was also indicated in a series of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) studies, where the significance may be affected due to the small sample sizes. The aim of this study was to reexamine the ADPN-HCC association by use of meta-analysis. Biweekly computer-based literature searches plus manual screening were undertaken in an effort to identify all studies that met the predefined inclusion criteria. The Mantel-Haenszel method was selected to estimate risk effects (odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence interval [CI]). To examine reliability of the pooled risk effects, we additionally performed sensitivity analysis and publication bias tests. Ten studies (1335 HCC patients and 2927 HCC-free controls) were identified for the meta-analysis. We found significantly increased risk of HCC attributable to presence of ADPN I148M polymorphism, with the highest risk associated with the M/M genotype under the recessive model of inheritance (OR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.87-2.67, between-study heterogeneity: P = 0.468). The significant increase persisted in Caucasian and African when data were stratified by ethnicity. Subgroup analysis according to source of controls revealed similar risk effects. Our meta-analysis indicates that I148M polymorphism in the ADPN gene may independently contribute to the progression of HCC irrespective of the etiologies.