A meta-analysis of the vascular endothelial growth factor polymorphisms associated with the risk of pre-eclampsia.

Weicheng Duan,Ping Cheng,Yijie Duan,Bo Xiong,Chenlu Xia,Kang Wang

doi:10.1042/bsr20190209

Abstract

Backgroud: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a common pregnancy-induced hypertension disease. Some case–control studies reported the association between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms (rs3025039, rs2010963) and PE risk. However, these associations were inconsistent in several studies. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to assess the role of VEGF gene polymorphisms in PE more precisely.Methods: Eligible studies were searched in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Chinese (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and WanFang) databases. Statistical analyses were performed by Stata 12.0 software. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to assess the strength of the association. In addition, subgroup analyses, sensitive analyses and publication bias analyses were performed to further assess this meta-analysis.Results: In total, 21 studies were included in the meta-analysis covering 2018 cases and 2632 controls. There were significant associations between VEGF polymorphisms (rs3025039, rs2010963) and PE risk in the overall populations. In the subgroup analyses, we found that rs3025039 polymorphism was associated with the increased risk of PE among Chinese. As for rs2010963 polymorphism, a significant association was observed in subgroup of Caucasian.Conclusion: The present study suggested that the two VEGF gene polymorphisms (rs3025039, rs2010963) are associated with increased risk of PE in different ethnic groups, which means that the targets may be useful genetic markers for early prediction of PE.

Highlights

Pre-eclampsia (PE), a common pregnancy disease diagnosed by hypertension and proteinuria, occurs in approximately 2–8% of pregnancies [1,2]
Studies reported that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) genes were associated with vascular growth and endothelial dysfunction, which may somewhat interpret the development of PE
Compared with previous meta-analyses, we made an effort to gain some improvements in our analysis: first, several studies were not included in previous meta-analyses (Lum (2017), Amosco et al (2016), Salimi et al (2015), Silva et al (2014), Zhang Honghui et al (2014), Procopciuc et al (2014), Atis et al (2012), Chen Baoli et al (2011), Liu Shifang (2010)); second, multiple subgroups were divided to be analyzed; thereby a more adequate statistical power was gained in our study

Summary

Introduction

Pre-eclampsia (PE), a common pregnancy disease diagnosed by hypertension and proteinuria, occurs in approximately 2–8% of pregnancies [1,2]. PE is an important reason for the maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality due to dysfunction of multiple systems and organs, such as liver, kidney and brain [3]. Its etiology has not been well recognized, PE is regarded as the result of the combined effect of multiple factors [4,5]. According to the results of the several epidemiological studies, PE has a substantial heritable component, which is estimated to be a major effect [4,6]. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene, located on chromosome 6p21.3, is a key regulator of angiogenesis and vascular function. VEGF is vital for the formation of trophoblasts, embryonic vasculature and maternal and foetal blood cells in utero [7]. Abnormal vascular growth and endothelial dysfunction have been proposed to be the part of pathogenesis. VEGF has drawn the attention of many researchers [8,9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion