Immunogenetics of pregnancy: Role of a 14-bp deletion in the maternal HLA-G gene in primiparous pre-eclamptic Brazilian women

Abstract

The etiology and pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia (PE) involve a combination of maternal-fetal genetic and immunologic factors. The immunologic maladaptation theory of PE predicts that the maternal immune system does not tolerate the semi-allogeneic fetus. Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) is expressed in some types of immune cells as well as in the fetal-maternal interface by trophoblasts, playing an immunoregulatory role. Here we have evaluated a 14-bp deletion polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region of exon 8 of HLA-G gene in pregnant PE women and controls. HLA-G genotypes in both control and PE women were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The healthy pregnant and PE women had similar genotype frequencies (p = 0.789). This was similarly observed when PE women were subgrouped accordingly to severity of disease (p = 0.646). However, the primiparous PE women presented a tendency toward higher frequency of the 14-bp deletion allele (0.442) compared with the primiparous healthy women (0.286), p = 0.09. Our data suggest that the maternal 14-bp deletion of HLA-G is not associated with the risk for PE but that it could affect the development of PE in primiparous women.