Problem: Considering that certain cytokines may change during pre-eclampsia (PE), because of functional polymorphisms in their genes, our purpose was to determine the association between tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene polymorphisms and development of PE.
Method of study: The genetic polymorphisms of TNF-alpha and IL-10 was studied by polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers in the DNA of peripheral blood cell from 160 patients with PE and 100 healthy pregnant women.
Results: We found a significant difference between TNF-alpha A allele (-308) and G allele (-238) in PE patients compared with those of the control groups. A significantly higher C/C genotype frequency of IL-10 (-592 and -819) was observed in the PE patients than in the control groups. In addition, the frequencies of three common IL-10 haplotypes (GCC, ACC, and ATA) did not show any significant difference between the study groups.
Conclusion: These findings would support the concept of contribution of TNF-alpha and IL-10 gene polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of PE in our population.