Unleash the Association of Mitochondrial Uncoupling Protein (UCP2) Promoter Variant (G-866A; rs659366) with Obesity: Stepping from a Case–Control Study to a Meta-analysis

Numerous eligible articles investigated the potential impact of the promoter region of UCP2 (rs659366) variant and the susceptibility for obesity with questionable outcomes. Our team designed this case–control combined with meta-analysis survey to illustrate the contribution of this variant with obesity. This case–control survey was formulated based on 110 obese Egyptian patients and 122 non-obese controls. Genomic DNA was amplified for ascertaining of UCP2 (G-866A; rs659366) variant exploiting the PCR–RFLP technique. A literature search was completed to investigate the involvement of this variant with obesity from various genetic databases. In this case–control study, the distribution of UCP2 (rs659366) variant showed a significant association with obesity among Egyptian subjects under allelic and dominant models (P value = 0.0006 and < 0.001, respectively). Overall, twenty-five comparisons for this variant (8652 obese patients and 10,075 non-obese controls) were recruited in this meta-analysis survey. A noteworthy association of UCP2 (rs659366) variant with obesity was identified among Asians and Africans but not Caucasians under allelic, dominant as well as heterozygote models. Nevertheless, this meta-analysis could not accomplish a noticeable association with overall subjects under different genetic models. This case-controlled study revealed a robust association for UCP2 (rs659366) variant with obesity susceptibility in Egyptian subjects; however, this meta-analysis survey failed to achieve an association for this variant with obesity in overall subjects except among Asians and Africans.