Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor gene is an important signaling protein produced by cells that stimulates vasculogenesis and angiogenesis. It is part of the system that restores the oxygen supply to tissues when blood circulation is inadequate. Its normal function is to create new blood vessels during embryonic development, new blood vessels after injury, muscle following exercise, and new vessels to bypass blocked vessels. It has been implicated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia (PE). The study included 200 female subjects. Out of them, 100 had a history of PE. Their mean age ± SD was 24.48 ± 4.19 years. Seventy-nine (79%) of cases had a history of mild PE and twenty one (21%) of cases had a history of severe PE. The other 100 subjects were clinically healthy unrelated women with a history of complete successful pregnancy and no PE. Their mean age ± SD was 23.28 ± 3.80 years. VEGF C405G, C2578A, and C936T gene polymorphisms were study by using accurate methods of molecular biology techniques such as PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLPs). We found that PE among Egyptian women was strongly associated with pre-eclamptic mutations relayed to VEGF C405G, C2578A, and C936T gene polymorphisms. There were statistically significant low frequencies of wild homozygous genotype CC and high frequencies of both heterozygous mutant genotypes CG and CA, and homozygous mutant genotype GG and AA in pre-eclamptic cases compared to controls. In addition, there were statistically significant high frequencies of mutant G and mutant A allele in pre-eclamptic cases compared to controls.
Key words: Vascular endothelial growth factor, Pre-eclampsia, Genotype, Gene polymorphisms.
|
