Objective: To test whether the interleukin-4 (IL-4) gene polymorphisms could be used as markers of susceptibility for preeclampsia in Taiwan.
Materials and methods: This study included 78 women with preeclampsia and 125 normal controls. A polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism for the IL-4 gene intron 3. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis using endonuclease BsmFI was performed for the IL-4 gene at the promoter -590 position. The association between the genotype and disease was examined using Chi-square tests.
Results: We found no significant differences in the genotype distributions and allele frequencies for the IL-4 gene at both promoter and intron 3 regions between the preeclampsia and control groups.
Conclusion: Even though this is the first study investigating the association between the promoter region and intron 3 polymorphisms of IL-4 and preeclampsia worldwide, our data do not support a role of the IL-4 gene in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia in Taiwanese women.
Keywords: Taiwanese; interleukin-4 gene; polymorphism; preeclampsia.
Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.