Investigation of polymorphisms in pre-eclampsia related genes VEGF and IL1A

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific multisystemic syndrome characterized by high blood pressure and presence of protein in the urine. The pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia is poorly understood and many factors such as environment, genetic, and immunology may be involved in PE pathophysiology. Among the genetic factors, there is an association between pre-eclampsia and polymorphisms in some genes of different population samples, as vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin 1 alpha. The vascular endothelial growth factor gene is highly polymorphic and acts as a regulator in endothelial cell proliferation and vascular permeability. The secretion of interleukin 1 alpha leads to a pro-inflammatory cascade, which leads to high levels of circulating cytokines. This high amount of cytokines corroborates to structural and functional alterations in endothelial cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) G-634C and interleukin 1 alpha (IL1A) rs3783550 polymorphism in a specific Brazilian pre-eclampsia group.

The evaluation of the vascular endothelial growth factor polymorphism was performed by PCR-RFLP restriction enzyme BsmFI and the IL1A polymorphism by allele-specific PCR. Molecular investigation was carried out by fragment size analysis on agarose and/or polyacrylamide gels.

However, no relation between polymorphism VEGF G-634C and pre-eclampsia was observed, indicating that further investigations with a larger sampling and other polymorphisms are still required. On the other hand, the rs3783550 polymorphism in the interleukin 1 alpha gene is correlated to pre-eclampsia, indicating that women with the allele A have a higher probability of developing the disease.

Thus, the interleukin 1 alpha gene could be used as a therapeutic tool for the diagnosis, as well as for monitoring the patients.