Recurrent pregnancy loss and apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms: a case–control study from north India.

PROBLEM

the role of apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms in the etiology of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is not clearly understood. We evaluated this polymorphism in unexplained pregnancy losses among North Indian women.

METHOD OF STUDY

in a retrospective case–control study, 200 well-characterized RPL cases were examined for their APO-E genotypes based on restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR-amplified fragments including amino acid positions 112 and 158. The observed genotypes were compared with those obtained from an equal number of ethnically matched negative controls.

RESULTS

we found similar APO-E genotypes and E2, E3, and E4 allele frequency distribution among RPL patients and controls. The allele frequencies obtained in patients and controls respectively were as follows:E2 = 7.5% and 9.0% (P = 0.52; OR = 0.81; 95%CI = 0.49–1.35),E3 = 89.7% and 90% (P = 1.00; OR = 0.97; 95%CI = 0.61–1.54), and E4 = 2.8% and 1% (P = 0.12; OR = 2.79; 95%CI = 0.88–8.86).

CONCLUSIONS

our data did not support the association of APO-E gene polymorphisms with recurrent pregnancy loss as reported by some of the previous studies.We endorse adequate characterization of RPL cases, inclusion of appropriate negative controls, and adequate sample size prior to addressing such studies.