Abstract

Diabetes is an age-related chronic disease associated with a number of complications, emerging as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Several studies indicated that hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1A) genetic polymorphisms may be associated with diabetes and diabetic complications. However, this association remains ambiguous. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to provide more precise conclusion on this issue. Odds ratios (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were applied to assess the strength of the relationships. There was a protective association between HIF1A Pro582Ser polymorphism and diabetes under the heterozygous genetic model (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.55-0.91; P = 0.007). Similar associations were observed in diabetic complications risk under the allelic (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.57-0.83; P < 0.001), homozygous (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.30-0.87; P = 0.014), recessive (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.59-0.90; P = 0.004) and dominant (OR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.25-0.65; P < 0.001) genetic models. No effects of the HIF1A Ala588Thr polymorphism were found in risk of diabetes and diabetic complications. Taken together, these findings revealed the protective effect of HIF1A Pro582Ser polymorphism against diabetes and diabetic complications.