Numerous studies have investigated the association between adiponectin +45 nucleotide T/G (+45T>G) polymorphisms and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, these studies have been inconclusive because of obvious inconsistencies among results. The present study aims to quantify the strength of the association between +45T>G (rs2241766) in the adiponectin gene and the risk of CVD.

We searched the PubMed, Embase, and Wangfang databases for studies related to the association between the adiponectin +45T>G genotype and the risk of CVD. We estimated the summary odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) to assess the association.

A total of 28 case–control studies, with 12,378 CVD cases and 19,368 controls, were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis of the 28 studies showed that the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) +45T>G genotype was associated with an increased risk of CVD (random-effects OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.08–1.39, p=0.002). After adjusting for heterogeneity, the meta-analysis showed that the SNP +45T>G genotype was associated with the risk of CVD in the analyses of the total population and the Caucasian population (for the total population, fixed-effects OR=1.11, 95% CI 1.01–1.23, p=0.012; for the Caucasian population, fixed-effects OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.34, p=0.039). No significant association was found in other populations. Evidence of publication bias was observed in the meta-analysis.

A significant association between rs2241766 in the adiponectin gene and CVD was established by the meta-analysis.