Association between E469K polymorphism in the ICAM1 gene and the risk of diabetic nephropathy: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Inflammation may be a key pathophysiological mechanism in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1) is an acute phase marker of inflammation. ICAM1 rs5498 has been reported to be associated with the risk of DN. However, the previous findings were conflicting due to the limited sample sizes, different methodologies and ethnicities. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the genetic association between ICAM1 rs5498 and the risk of DN. METHODS: Two investigators independently searched the studies from the databases PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Embase. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the associations. RESULTS: No significant association was detected between ICAM1 rs5498 and DN susceptibility in allelic and recessive models (p > 0.05). However, significant reduction of frequencies of the dominant model of ICAM1 rs5498 was only detected in the Caucasian subgroup (OR = 0.80; 95% CI = [0.65, 0.99], p = 0.04) and type 1 diabetes mellitus subgroup (OR = 0.80; 95% CI = [0.65, 0.99], p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Thus, ICAM1 rs5498 might be a risk factor for DN in Caucasians and type 1 diabetes mellitus patients, which suggested that ICAM1 rs5498 might help in early diagnosis and prevention of this disease. Further studies were needed to clarify the biochemical function and pathological role of ICAM1 rs5498 in the risk of DN. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12944-018-0922-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.