Highlighting allelic variations at the interleukin-19 locus in term of preeclampsia predisposing factors and access to an accurate diagnostic/screening option

Abstract

Background: Preeclampsia is the main cause of preterm parturition and maternal-fetal complications. T helper 1 and T helper 2 cytokines balance is a requirement in normal pregnancy and aberrant in this immunologic balance, play an important role in the pathology of preeclampsia. In previous studies single nucleotide polymorphisms have been associated with the alteration of serum cytokine levels.

Objective: This study was aimed to discover association between interleukin-13 (rs20541, and rs56035208) and interleukin-19 (rs1028181 (T/C) and rs2243191(T/C)) polymorphisms with susceptibility to preeclampsia.

Methods: In this case-control study 300 women with and without preeclampsia (n = 150/each) who referred to Zeynabieh Hospital- Shiraz, Iran, from February 2021 to April 2022 were enrolled. For genotyping the interleukin-13 and interleukin-19 polymorphisms, the Allele-specific polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing method was carried out.

Results: Our statistical results revealed no significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies for interleukin-13 polymorphisms compared to controls. We found that the interleukin-13 polymorphisms are significantly associated with vulnerability to edema at rs20541 position and maternal drinking at rs56035208 position. But it was interesting to note that the differences of both the allele and genotype frequencies of interleukin-19 polymorphisms and their contribution to the risk of preeclampsia susceptibility were significant.

Conclusions: No risk of preeclampsia was found in all comparisons for interleukin-13 polymorphisms. However, the interleukin-19 polymorphisms were found to confer the risk of preeclampsia in our population.

Keywords: Genetic polymorphism; Interleukin-13; Interleukin-19; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy.

Fig. 1

Flow chart of the selection procedure

Fig. 2

The pattern of bands observed after agarose-gel electrophoresis. IL-13; with control primers, a 169bp amplification product was obtained in two reactions. A 223bp (rs20541) and a 221bp (rs56035208) amplification products, are corresponding to the allele -specific primers used in AS-PCR. IL-19; with control primers, a 166 bp and a 169 bp amplification product were obtained in rs2243191 and rs1028181 reactions, respectively. A 262bp (rs2243191) and a 372bp (rs1028181) amplification products, are corresponding to the allele -specific primers used in AS-PCR. The gels displayed here not cropped, and are without high-contrast (overexposure)

Fig. 3

Result of DNA sequencing of PCR products of IL-13 and IL-19 polymorphisms