Polymorphisms in angiotensin-converting enzyme and glutathione s-transferase genes in Turkish population and risk for preeclampsia.

AIMS

This study was conducted to investigate whether insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and polymorphisms in glutathione S-transferase (GST) M1 and T1 genes are associated with increased risk for preeclampsia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixty-three patients with hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and 85 controls were evaluated in a prospective case-control study. All subjects were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by agarose gel electrophoresis.

RESULTS

Allele frequencies of ACE gene I/D polymorphism were found significantly different between preeclampsia and the control groups (p = 0.001). Differences in genotype frequencies of ACE gene I/D polymorphism between the two groups were statistically significant (p = 0.004). Individuals homozygous for D allele were more likely to develop preeclampsia (OR = 2.29; 95% CI, 1.39-3.79), whereas heterozygous individuals were not at increased risk (OR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.56-1.49), compared to individuals homozygous for I allele. The differences in frequencies of functional and null alleles of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes between the two groups were not significant (p = 0.46 and p = 0.44, respectively).

CONCLUSION

ACE gene DD genotype was found to be associated with increased risk of preeclampsia development, whereas the authors did not find any significant relationship with polymorphisms of the GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes and preeclampsia.