Association of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism with the pre-eclampsia risk in Hakka pregnant women in Southern China

Abstract

The aim of this study is to clarify the possible association between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism and pre-eclampsia in Hakka pregnant women in southern China. Pre-eclampsia and normal pregnant women were consecutively collected and MTHFR C677T genotypes were determined by the DNA sequencing method. One hundred and thirteen pre-eclampsia patients were CC homozygote (113 of 191, 59.2%), 68 of 191 (35.6%) were CT heterozygote, and 10 of 191 (5.2%) were TT homozygote, with the frequency of the T allele equal to 0.77. This is in comparison with the normal control group where 106 of 202 (52.5%) were CC homozygote, 83 of 202 (41.1%) were CT heterozygote, and 13 of 202 (6.4%) were TT homozygote, with the frequency of the T allele equal to 0.27. No statistically significant differences were observed in genotype or allele frequencies between the pre-eclampsia and normal control for the C677T polymorphism of MTHFR gene (p > .05). The findings of this study suggest that polymorphisms of MTHFR C677T genes were not associated with pre-eclampsia in Hakka pregnant women from southern China, but additional studies are necessary to explore the mechanisms involving it.

摘要

这项研究的目的是探究中国南方客家孕妇中亚甲基四氢叶酸还原酶（MTHFR）C677T多态性与子痫前期之间可能的联系。连续招募子痫前期和正常孕妇, 并通过DNA测序方法确定MTHFR C677T基因型。子痫前期患者113例为CC纯合子（191例中占113例, 占59.2％）, 191例中有68例（占35.6％）为CT杂合子, 191例中有10例（5.2％）为TT纯合子。T等位基因频率等于0.77。与正常对照组相比, 正常对照组202例中纯合子为106例（52.5％）, CT杂合子为83例（41.1％）, TT纯合子为 13例（6.4％）, 其中T等位基因的频率等于0.27。在子痫前期和正常对照之间, MTHFR基因的C677T多态性在基因型或等位基因频率上没有观察到统计学上的显著差异（p> 0.05）。这项研究表明, 在中国南方的客家孕妇中, MTHFR C677T基因的多态性与子痫前期无关, 但需要更多的研究来探讨其机制。

The Chinese abstracts are translated by Prof. Dr. Xiangyan Ruan and her team: Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100026, China.

Keywords:

• Pre-eclampsia
• methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase
• gene polymorphism
• homocysteine
• Hakka

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No: A2017404 to Dr. Jingyuan Hou).