Association between allelic variants in cytokine genes and preeclampsia

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cytokine genotypes and preeclampsia.

We conducted a case-control study that examined cytokine genotypes among 150 primiparous preeclamptic women and 661 primiparous, normotensive women. Analyses were adjusted for age, prepregnancy cigarette smoking, and education.

Preeclamptic white women were more likely than normotensive white women to carry the up-regulating tumor necrosis factor-alpha-308 A/A (odds ratio, 4.1; 95% CI, 1.1-15.3) genotype. Both black and white women with preeclampsia were more likely than normotensive control subjects to carry the interleukin-1alpha-producing-4845 G/G genotype (black odds ratio, 11.6; 95% CI, 1.5-89.3; white odds ratio, 1.7; 95% CI, 0.7-3.9), -889 C/C genotype (black odds ratio, 5.1; 95% CI, 0.6-41.6; white odds ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 0.8-4.7), and the interleukin-1alpha-4845/interleukin-1alpha-889/interleukin-1beta-3957 GCC/GCC haplotype (black odds ratio, 3.4; 95% CI, 1.3-8.7; white odds ratio, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.4-3.2).

Cytokine genotypes were associated with preeclampsia and may identify women who are at high risk for preeclampsia.