Association of Plasma Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Levels and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: A Meta-Analysis

PLoS One. 2016 May 12;11(5):e0155275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155275. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Introduction: Numerous studies have demonstrated that plasma transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) may be involved in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF), but some discrepancy remained. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between the plasma level of TGF-β1 and the risk of AF.

Methods: Published clinical studies evaluating the association between the plasma level of TGF-β1 and the risk of AF were retrieved from PubMed and EMBASE databases. Two reviewers independently evaluated the quality of the included studies and extracted study data. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate for heterogeneity between studies.

Results: Of the 395 studies identified initially, 13 studies were included into our analysis, with a total of 3354 patients. Higher plasma level of TGF-β1 was associated with increased risk of AF when evaluated as both a continuous variable (SMD 0.67; 95%CI 0.29-1.05) and a categorical variable (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.01-1.02).

Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests an association between elevated plasma TGF-β1 and new onset AF. Additional studies with larger sample sizes are needed to further investigate the relationship between plasma TGF-β1 and the occurrence of AF.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis

MeSH terms

  • Atrial Fibrillation / blood*
  • Atrial Fibrillation / epidemiology
  • Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Risk Factors
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / blood*

Substances

  • Transforming Growth Factor beta1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants (81270245, 81570298 to Tong Liu, and 81370300 to Guangping Li) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20121202110004 to Guangping Li). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.