Polymorphisms in complement genes and risk of preeclampsia in Taiyuan, China.

Background And Objectives: Altered immune response may be a part of the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. The few epidemiologic studies that have investigated the associations between genetic variations in the complement system genes and preeclampsia risk have reached inconsistent results. The aim of this study is to determine if polymorphisms in the complement system genes could influence the risk of preeclampsia.

Methods: We examined 51 SNPs in the C3, C5, C6, MASP1, MBL2 and CD55 genes and the risk of preeclampsia and its clinical subtypes in a nested case-control study of 203 preeclampsia cases and 233 controls.

Results: Both C6 and MASP1 were associated with the risk of preeclampsia. C6 (rs7444800, rs4957381) and MASP1 (rs1108450, rs3774282, rs698106) polymorphisms were associated with the risk of early-onset preeclampsia and severe preeclampsia, while MASP1 (rs1357134, rs698090) polymorphisms were associated with the risk of late-onset preeclampsia and severe preeclampsia.

Conclusions: Our study provided novel evidence that genetic variations in complement genes C6 and MASP1were associated with preeclampsia risk, and that the risk varied by preeclampsia subtypes.