Association of genetic ancestry with preterm delivery and related traits among African American mothers.
OBJECTIVE
In the United States, the rate of preterm delivery (PTD) is higher in African Americans (17.8%) than non-Hispanic whites (11.5%). Such disparity cannot be fully explained by differences in socioenvironmental factors.


METHODS
We genotyped 812 mothers in a case-control PTD study at Boston Medical Center who self-reported their ethnicity as "black." Regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were applied to evaluate ancestral distribution and the association between genetic ancestry and PTD-related traits, as well as the potential confounding effect of population stratification.


RESULTS
The estimated African ancestral proportion was 0.90 +/- 0.13. We found significant associations of ancestral proportion with PTD as a whole and PTD subgrouped by the presence of maternal hypertensive disorders. We did not observe significant confounding as a result of population stratification in this case-control PTD study.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data underline the need for more intensive investigation of genetic admixture in African Americans to identify novel susceptibility genes of PTD.
Tsai
Hui-Ju
HJ
Mary Ann and J Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Chicago, IL 60614-3394 , USA. htsai@childrensmemorial.org
Yu
Yunxian
Y
Zhang
Shanchun
S
Pearson
Colleen
C
Ortiz
Katherin
K
Xu
Xiping
X
Bauchner
Howard
H
Zuckerman
Barry
B
Wang
Xiaobin
X
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000208:ethnology*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000235:genetics; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult