Vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms and pre-eclampsia.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a crucial role in physiological vasculogenesis and vascular permeability and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia. Our present study was undertaken to identify associations between three functional VEGF gene polymorphisms, linked with altered VEGF gene responsiveness, and pre-eclampsia. The study involved 42 pre-eclamptic and 73 healthy control women who were genotyped for the -2578C/A, -634G/C and 936C/T polymorphisms of the VEGF gene. No significant association between genotypic or allelic frequencies in women with pre-eclampsia relative to controls was found. A statistically significant difference was found for allelic frequencies of the 936C/T polymorphism between women with severe pre-eclampsia and controls (odds ratio: 2.70; 95% confidence interval: 1.09-6.63; P = 0.019). VEGF gene polymorphisms studied are unlikely to be major predisposing factors for pre-eclampsia. The presence of the 936T allele probably has a considerable effect on disease modification.
Papazoglou
Dimitrios
D
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece. dapap@otenet.gr
Galazios
Georgios
G
Koukourakis
Michael I
MI
Panagopoulos
Ioannis
I
Kontomanolis
Emmanuel N
EN
Papatheodorou
Konstantinos
K
Maltezos
Efstratios
E
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000235:genetics*; D011247:Pregnancy; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics*
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A