Vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms and idiopathic recurrent pregnancy loss

otenet.gr 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 poly-morphisms of the VEGF gene. No signi®cant association between genotypic or allelic frequencies in women with pre-eclampsia relative to controls was found. A statistically signi®cant difference was found for allelic frequencies of the 936C/T polymorphism between women with severe pre-eclampsia and controls (odds ratio: 2.70; 95 % con®dence 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 modi®cation. Key words: pre-eclampsia/polymorphisms/vascular endothelial growth facto