Background: Several studies concerning the association between glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) Ile105Val polymorphism and male infertility risk have reported controversial findings. The present study was aimed to explore this association using a meta-analysis.
Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang databases were searched. Odds ratios (OR s) with 95% confidence intervals (CI s) were calculated to estimate the strength of the association.
Results: A total of 3282 cases and 3268 controls in nine case-control studies were included. There was no significant association between GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism and male infertility in the overall population, but significant associations were found under the dominant (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.04-1.46, I2 = 32.2%) and heterozygote (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.08-1.53, I2 = 26.8%) models after excluding studies for which the data did not satisfy Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). Similarly, subgroup analyses revealed no significant association in Asians or Chinese population although a significant association was apparent among Chinese population in studies with HWE under the heterozygote model (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.03-1.52, I2 = 44.1%). Significant heterogeneity could be observed in some genetic models, but this heterogeneity was not significant when stratified by HWE. No evidence for publication bias was found.
Conclusions: The GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism might not be associated with male infertility risk, and thus additional well-designed studies with larger sample size are warranted.