The investigation of VEGF genetic variations in unexplained Recurrent Pregnancy Loss cases

The recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as two clinical miscarriages with the same partner before the 20th week of pregnancy, detected either by ultrasonography or histopathologic examination. RPL is an entity with a plethora of etiologies. Although some cases are ascribed to anatomic, parental chromosomal defects as well as thrombophilias or immunologic-endocrin disorders. Nearly in half of the cases , there is no detectable cause for this devastating poor pregnancy outcome. We hypothethised that Vascula Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) polymorphisms may play a role in the defective angiogenesis and implantation at very early stages of human gestation and may be responsible for the reccurrent nature of this disorder. A total of 135 women were included in this study. The RPL group consisted of 45 women who had had at least 2 previous consecutive abortions from the same partner before the 20th week of pregnancy. 90 women who had had at least one livebirth and never had any abortion were included in the control group. 4 most common SNPs which decrease the expression of VEGF,-2578C/A and -1154G/A in the promoter region, -634G/C in the 5’-untranslated region, and 936C/T in the 3’-untranslated region of VEGF gene were investigated and compared in two groups. . Although some former studies demonstrated a relation with the presence of high risk alleles and RPL, we could not find any statistically significant difference in the frequencies of these alleles between the RPL and control groups. This might reflect the geographic and ethnic differences in the distribution of these alleles in different population.