Positive association between ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism and essential hypertension: A case-control study and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Several studies have been conducted to examine the association between aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 family (ALDH2) rs671 polymorphism and essential hypertension (EH). However, the results remain inconsistent. This study aimed to clarify the association between ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism and EH susceptibility. METHODS: One thousand and ninety-four cases and 1236 controls who were ethnic Han Chinese were collected for this population-based case-control study. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate the pooled odds ratio and 95% confidence interval, using allele contrast, dominant, recessive, and co-dominant models using fixed or random-effect models. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed between EH cases and controls at the level of both genotype (χ(2) = 6.656, P<0.05) and alleles (χ(2) = 6.314, P<0.05). An additional meta-analysis using 4204 cases and 5435 controls established that rs671 was significantly associated with EH (P<0.00001). CONCLUSION: The results of our case-control study and meta-analysis showed that there is a significant association between ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism and EH susceptibility. In addition, the results of the breakdown analysis by gender suggest a male-specific association between the ALDH2 rs671 polymorphism and EH.