The role of NKX2-5 gene polymorphisms in congenital heart disease (CHD): a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The gene NKX2-5 is a key transcription factor that plays an essential role in normal cardiac development. Although some recent studies have studied the role of polymorphisms in the NKX2-5 gene in congenital heart diseases (CHDs), the results were not consistent and remained uncertain. Therefore, we conduct a review of literature and investigate the association of genetic polymorphisms with CHDs. RESULTS: We selected seventeen studies regarding the association of NKX2-5 gene rs2277923 polymorphism with CHDs. Overall, in all the tested genetic models, the 63A > G polymorphism was not significantly associated with increased congenital heart defects risk. We used pooled odds ratios (OR) to calculate the association of CHDs with rs2277923 including allelic model: OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.82–1.21; homozygote model: OR 0.95, 95%CI 0.68–1.33, recessive model: OR 0.89 CI 0.70–1.13, heterozygote model: OR: 1.09, 95%CI 0.87–1.37, dominant model: OR 1.08 CI 0.82–1.42 and overdominant model: OR 1.17 CI 1.01–1.35. In addition, our analysis suggests that no publication bias exists in this meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that 63A > G polymorphism in the NKX2-5 gene was not significantly associated with congenital heart defects. However, in the future, more studies with increased sample size are required that may provide us more definite conclusions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43044-021-00199-w.