An intron variant in the FLT1 gene increases the risk of preeclampsia in Iranian women

ABSTRACT

Background: Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder that affects pregnancy, mother, and fetus. Pathogenesis of preeclampsia could be associated with the angiogenesis pathways. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family is one of the important factors for normal pregnancy and angiogenesis. Genetic variations in the gene family members may play a role in the etiology of preeclampsia. We investigated the possible association between VEGFA gene rs3025039, and VEGFR1 (FLT1) gene rs722503 polymorphisms and preeclampsia in a sample of Iranian patients. Methods: Genotyping was performed in 395 women, including, 204 pre-eclamptic pregnant women and 191 healthy normotensive pregnant women by using the PCR-RFLP method. Results: The rs722503 polymorphism was associated with preeclampsia under the dominant model (P = 0.04, OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.03–2.27). No significant difference was observed for the rs3025039 alleles and genotypes in the studied groups. Conclusions: Based on our study, rs722503 polymorphism in the FLT1 gene may play an important role in susceptibility to preeclampsia.

KEYWORDS:

• Preeclampsia
• genetic association study
• VEGFA
• FLT1
• single nucleotide polymorphism

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the personnel of the Arash hospital for their collaboration in this research. This article has been extracted from the thesis written by Ms. Mona Amin-Beidokhti the PhD student in the School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Registration No. 355).

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.