Endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphisms in preeclampsia with or without eclampsia in a Turkish population

Abstract

To evaluate endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphisms in preeclampsia with or without eclampsia in a Turkish population. Fifty-seven preeclamptic and 60 normotensive women were enrolled in the present study. The study focused on two functional variants: a variant in exon 7-G to T conversion at nucleotide position 894 resulting in the replacement of glutamic acid with aspartic acid at codon 298 (Glu298Asp) and a variant variable number of 27 bp tandem repeats in intron 4 (VNTR intron 4). Two polymorphisms in the maternal eNOS gene were characterized by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Preeclamptic pregnant women were evaluated into two subgroups according to the presence of eclampsia. We demonstrated a significant difference in patients with preeclampsia in terms of Glu298Asp/eNOS genotype frequency. G/G homozygotes of Glu298Asp among healthy pregnancies were significantly frequent when T/T homozygotes were significantly frequent among preeclamptic pregnancies. We showed that G/T heterozygotes of Glu298Asp/eNOS gene were significantly frequent among preeclamptic pregnant women who did not develop eclampsia than in preeclamptic pregnant women with eclampsia. Glu298Asp polymorphism in the eNOS gene could be an individual's risk factor and may modulate progression to an eclampsia complication of preeclampsia in the Turkish population.