Association study of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms with ectopic pregnancy in Chinese women

The purpose of this study is to evaluate potential associations between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms and ectopic pregnancy (EP) in Chinese women.

This was a case-control study wherein 192 women with a history of EP were compared to 210 post-menopausal controls with two pregnancies and no EP for the genotyping of VEGF polymorphisms. Genotyping of the VEGF gene polymorphisms at -460C/T, -1 154G/A, -2578C/A and +936C/T were performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.

No significant differences were found in genotype and allele distributions of the -460C/T, +936C/T polymorphisms between cases and controls. Compared with the -1154G/G genotype, the -1154(A/A+G/A) genotype could significantly reduce the risk of developing EP. For the -2578C/A polymorphism, the A/A+C/A geno- type could significantly decrease the risk of developing EP, compared with the C/C genotype. The haplotype analysis suggested that the TAA (VEGF -460/-1154/-2578) and CAA haplotypes could significantly decrease the risk of developing EP compared with the haplotype of TGC.

The -1154A or -2578A alleles of VEGF gene could significantly decrease the risk of EP and might be po- tentially protective factors for EP development in Chinese women.