An association study of interleukin-4 gene and preeclampsia in Taiwan

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.