Ischemic stroke (IS) is responsible for a high death rate and for adult disability worldwide. MiR-146a (rs2910164), miR-149 (rs2292832), miR-196a2 (rs11614913) and miR-499 (rs3746444) are found to be associated with ischemic stroke. However, the results were inconsistent and inconclusive. The present study performed a meta-analysis to get a more precise and comprehensive estimation of the association between the four polymorphisms and IS risk. The databases Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database were searched for related studies. A total of five studies including 2230 cases and 2229 controls were identified for the meta-analysis. The results indicate that TT genotype and T allele of miR-149 (rs2292832) are associated with significantly lower risks of IS in a homozygous model (OR = 0.70) and an allelic model (OR = 0.86). No significant associations were found between miR-146a (rs2910164), miR-196a2 (rs11614913), miR-499 (3746444) and IS susceptibility in any of the studies. However, subgroup analysis by sample size indicates a significant decrease in risks of IS for CC genotype and C allele of miR-146a (rs2910164) in the large sample size group. Therefore, miR-149 (rs2292832) might be recommended as a predictor for IS risk, while miR-146a (rs2910164), miR-196a2 (rs11614913), miR-499 (3746444) are not.
Keywords: ischemic stroke; meta-analysis; miR-146a; miR-149; miR-196a2; miR-499; polymorphism.