Association between susceptibility to pre-eclampsia within families and HLA DR4.
56 women who had had proteinuric pre-eclampsia and who had parous sisters were studied. In first pregnancy, proteinuric pre-eclampsia was more common in the sisters than in the maternity hospital population (8/71 [11%] vs 41/1978 [2%]); the relative risk was 6.0. The frequency of HLA DR4 was higher in sisters with pregnancy-induced hypertension than in sisters with normotensive pregnancies (8/18 [44%] vs 10/54 [19%]) and more of them shared HLA DR4 with their spouses (4/14 [29%] vs 0/29). Genetic susceptibility to pre-eclampsia is associated with HLA DR4; it may be conferred by fetomaternal sharing of a single recessive HLA-linked gene.
Kilpatrick
D C
DC
Blood Transfusion Centre, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.
Liston
W A
WA
Gibson
F
F
Livingstone
J
J
D000328:Adult; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000150:complications; D012306:Risk
D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen