Polymorphisms of glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPX1 Pro198Leu) and catalase (CAT C-262T) in women with spontaneous abortion.

About 10%-15% of conceptions are lost spontaneously prior to 20 weeks. Apart from the clinical problems, genetic variations have also been proposed as a susceptibility factor to miscarriage. Glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPX1) and catalase (CAT) encode two antioxidant enzymes that detoxify H2O2 and protect the cells from oxidative damage. A functional polymorphism at codon 198 of the GPX1 gene causes a C/T substitution in exon 2, which encodes for either proline or leucine (Pro198Leu). The CAT gene has a polymorphic site in the promoter region at position -262 (C-262T) which alters the expression and enzyme blood levels, leading to some pathological clinical conditions. In this study, we evaluated the association of these two polymorphisms with the risk of spontaneous abortion. Genomic DNA from 105 cases with spontaneous abortion and 90 healthy women were genotyped using allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) and polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The genetic distributions for GPX1 did not differ significantly between cases and controls (p = 0.680). However, C-262T polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of the disease (OR, 5.50; 95% CI, 1.43-21.09; p = 0.012). In conclusion, this study indicates that CAT -262T/T genotype confers less susceptibility to spontaneous abortion, while GPX1 Pro198Leu polymorphism may not be correlated with the disease.