Association between interleukin-4 polymorphisms and risk of pre-eclampsia in a population of Chinese pregnant women

Preeclampsia is a common disease unique to pregnant women, and its development involves many genetics l factors. IL-4 is an important regulatory factor of the Th2 cellular immune response, and plays an important role in the induction of placental growth. In this study, we investigated the relationship between IL-4 C-590T, C+33T and G-1098T polymorphisms and risk of pre-eclampsia in a population of pregnant women. A case-control study of 196 pregnant women with pre-eclampsia and 257 healthy controls was conducted. Genotyping of IL-4 C-590T, C+33T and G-1098T was performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. We observed that the TT genotype, compared to the CC genotype, of IL-4 C-590T harbored a lower risk of pre-eclampsia; adjusted OR (95%CI) was 0.29 (0.11-0.81). The CT+TT genotype, compared to the CC genotype, harbored a lower risk of pre-eclampsia (adjusted OR = 0.50, 95%CI = 0.30-0.84) in the dominant model. In the recessive model, the TT genotype, compared to the CC+CT genotype, harbored a lower risk of pre-eclampsia (adjusted OR = 0.31, 95%CI = 0.11-0.86). However, no significant correlation was observed between the IL-4 C+33T and G-1098T polymorphisms and risk of pre-eclampsia in three genetic models. In conclusion, IL-4 C-590T polymorphism could be used as a predictive risk factor for pre-eclampsia.