tumor necrosis factor-alpha polymorphism at position -238 in preeclampsia

conclusion: in this study group, tnf-α -238 polymorphism was shown to be different in preeclamptic and non-preeclamptic pregnant women. the aa genotype and the a allele may carry an increased risk for developing of preeclampsia. results: there were significant differences between the two groups in tnf-α genotype at position -238 (p < 0.001). in the preeclamptic group, the frequency of the aa genotype was higher (p < 0.001) and the frequency of the gg genotype was lower (p < 0.001). the overall prevalence of the a allele at position -238 was higher in preeclamptic cases (p < 0.001). background: preeclampsia is the most common serious disorder during pregnancy and studies show several immune-related processes in its pathophysiology. the role of cytokines and their expression remains controversial in this field. one of the cytokines of interest in recent studies has been tnf-α, which has been shown to have a higher level in maternal plasma of preeclamptic women. objectives: this study was designed to evaluate the role of tnf-α polymorphism at position -238 in the risk of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy. patients and methods: one hundred fifty three preeclamptic cases and 140 healthy pregnant women were retrieved from two major hospitals of mashhad, iran. methods a case-control study were designed. anyone with a history of inflammatory disease, hypertension, or chronic kidney disease was excluded. dna was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes. both groups were genotyped for the polymorphism of the tnf-α gene at position -238 by the rflp method with ava ii enzyme. allele and genotype frequencies were compared using one-way anova and the fisher’s exact test.