Association between 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH and ischemic stroke among Chinese and Japanese populations: a meta-analysis including 3686 cases and 4589 controls.

Meta-analysis was performed to investigate the association between 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH (the gene encoding for protein kinase C η) and ischemic stroke among Chinese and Japanese populations.The databases of MEDLINE, PubMed, Chinese Biomedical Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and WANFANG DATA until September 2011 were searched for published case-control studies on 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH and ischemic stroke. Strict selection criteria and exclusion criteria were determined, and pooled odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a fixed or random effects model to determine the strength of the genetic association. The publication bias was further evaluated by calculating the fail-safe number in the included studies.Five studies, comprising 3686 cases and 4589 controls, passed all the criteria and therefore were included in the meta-analysis. Test for heterogeneity showed that P values (P=0.76, 0.24, respectively) in the two meta-analyses were both greater than 0.05, therefore the fixed effects model was performed. Statistically significant association between 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH and ischemic stroke was identified (OR=1.34; 95% CI, 1.22-1.47), and the association was even stronger between 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH and lacunar infarction (OR=1.44; 95% CI, 1.28-1.63). The fail-safe number (N(fs 0.05)) for 1425G/A SNP in PRKCH with ischemic stroke and lacunar infarction was 59 and 44, respectively, which were greater than the number of studies included in the analyses.SNP 1425G/A in PRKCH was associated with ischemic stroke, particularly lacunar infarction, in Chinese and Japanese populations. More studies of different subtypes of stroke need to be done to confirm the results in other Asian populations.