Evaluation of Glutathione Peroxidase 4 role in Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome that may be lifethreatening to pregnancies and fetus. Glutathione Peroxidase 4 (GPx4) is a powerful antioxidant enzyme that can provide protection from oxidative stress damage which plays a pivotal role in the pathology of PE. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the association between Gpx4 polymorphisms and the susceptibility to PE in Chinese Han women. TaqMan allelic discrimination real-time PCR was used to perform the genotyping of rs713041 and rs4807542 in 1008 PE patients and 1386 normotensive pregnancies. Obviously statistical difference of genotypic and allelic frequencies were found of rs713041 in GPx4 between PE patients and controls and the C allele has the higher risk for pathogenesis of PE (χ(2) = 12.292, P = 0.002 by genotype; χ(2) = 11.035, P = 0.001, OR = 1.216, 95% CI 1.084-1.365 by allele). Additionally, when subdividing these samples into CC + CT and TT groups, we found a significant difference between the two groups (χ(2) = 11.241, P = 0.001, OR = 1.417, 95% CI 1.155-1.738). Furthermore, the genotype of rs713041 was found to be associated with the mild, severe and early-onset PE. Our results suggest that rs713041 in GPx4 may play a key role in the pathogenesis of PE.