Apolipoprotein E alleles in women with severe pre-eclampsia.

Abstract

This study investigated the frequency of apolipoprotein E (apoE) alleles among women with severe pre-eclampsia. The presence of the three most common apoE alleles ( 2, 3, 4) was determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism in three groups of white women: non-pregnant healthy (n = 101), pregnant healthy (n = 52), and pregnant with a diagnosis of severe pre-eclampsia (n = 54). The frequency of apo 2 was highest among women with severe pre-eclampsia (16.6%) followed by non-pregnant women (12.9%), and those experiencing a healthy pregnancy (10.6%). The higher frequency of the apo 2 allele detected among women with severe pre-eclampsia suggests that apoE may play a role in the development of pre-eclampsia. (J Clin Pathol 1998;51:324-325) Keywords: apolipoprotein E; pre-eclampsia; gene polymorphism Apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays an important role in lipid metabolism, and women with preeclampsia have raised lipid concentrations. Therefore, we investigated the possible role of apoE in pre-eclampsia by determining the frequency of apoE alleles and genotypes using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Patients and methodsParticipants (207 white women) were drawn from an urban university department and assigned to one of three study groups depending on health status. The three groups included a healthy non-pregnant reference group (n = 101, blood donors) ranging in age from 18 to 62 years (mean, 37); a healthy pregnant 20-41 weeks' gestation (mean, 35.5) control group (n = 52) ranging in age from 17 to 41 years (mean, 26); and a study group of women with severe pre-eclampsia (n = 54) ranging in age from 18 to 45 years (mean, 28.8) who were between 25 and 38 weeks' gestation (mean, 32). The pre-eclampsia group comprised women who were diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia at our department from 1 October 1996 until 1 September 1997 according to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines.

An altered pattern of circulating apolipoprotein E3 isoforms is implicated in preeclampsia

“…In the general population, the ε3 allele is most common (with a prevalence of over 60%), and E3 is the predominant circulating apoE variant. An association between the ε2 allele and preeclampsia was formerly suggested by Nagy et al (24), but this hypothesis was not confirmed in several following studies (25)(26)(27)(28). Moreover, Belo et al (26) reported no differences in the prevalence of the ε3 allele in a large cohort of pregnant women with respect to their pregnancy outcome (healthy or complicated by preeclampsia).…”

Increased maternal and fetal cholesterol efflux capacity and placental CYP27A1 expression in preeclampsia

“…Increased plasma apoE polymorphisms have been reported in women with pre-eclampsia (17,18), however findings relating to apoA1 measurements in pre-eclampsia are conflicting (19,20). To-date, it is not known whether AIBP is expressed in the placenta or altered in pre-eclampsia.…”

Comparison between Essential Hypertension and Pregnancy-induced Hypertension: a Genetic Perspective

“…The candidate genes reported to be associated with PIH are classified into four groups and include the blood pressure regulation system, metabolic system, coagulation and the fibrinolysis system, and immunity system groups (Table 2) [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]. This classification is dependent upon the molecules and the factors might provide some benefits such as elevating the sensitivity for isolating susceptibility genes of PIH.…”