Analysis of the potential role of Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in genetic predisposition to spontaneous abortion.

PROBLEM: Up to 20% of pregnancies end in the first trimester by spontaneous abortion, but a significant number remains unexplained. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of variants within the gene for apolipoprotein E (APOE) in the genetic determination of spontaneous abortions.

METHOD OF STUDY: We collected DNA from 410 tissue samples of spontaneous abortions, and APOE was genotyped by PCR-RFLP method. The frequencies were compared with a population sample of adults (N = 2606) and with a positive control (1060 women with at least two children).

RESULTS

The frequencies of the APOE genotypes in abortions (APOE2E2 + E3E2 = 0.132; APOE3E3 = 0.661; APOE3E4 + E4E4 = 0.195; APOE4E2 = 0.012) did not significantly differ (P = 0.604) from the frequencies in analyzed adult population study (APOE2E2 + E3E2 = 0.132; APOE3E3 = 0.686; APOE3E4 + E4E4 = 0.169; APOE4E2 = 0.014) or from the positive control (APOE2E2 + E3E2 = 0.133; APOE3E3 = 0.691; APOE3E4 + E4E4 =0.166; APOE4E2 = 0.010; P = 0.592).

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that APOE may not be associated with spontaneous abortions in Caucasians.