Paternal contribution to the risk for pre-eclampsia

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Abstract
The mothers in the study group consisted of Dutch women who had previously been admitted to the antenatal wards of the University Medical Centre, Nijmegen for pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia was defined as the occurrence after 20 weeks' gestation of a diastolic blood pressure greater than 90 mm Hg and concordant proteinuria (urinary protein greater than 0.3 g/l in a 24 hour collection period or a protein/creatinine ratio greater than 0.3 g/10 mmol). The local ethical committee on human experimentation approved the study protocol. Genomic DNA from mothers and fathers was extracted from blood samples collected by venepuncture using the Wizard™ genomic DNA purification kit, according to the instructions of the manufacturer (Promega, Madison, WI, USA). DNA from offspring was collected from buccal cell samples collected on sterile swabs as described by Richards et al.3 After extraction, DNA was further purified by phenol/chloroform extraction. Subsequently, the 105 Ile→Val polymorphism in GSTP1 was assessed by polymerase chain reaction as described previously.1 Chi-square analyses and relative risks approximated by odds ratios were used for statistical evaluation of differences in polymorphic rates and allele frequencies. A p value of 0.05 represents statistical significance. Association analysis was also performed using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) described by Spielman et al.4 The TDT test evaluates the observed number of parent-offspring transmissions of alleles, compared with the number of transmissions expected by chance. Only parents heterozygous for the polymorphism tested are informative for the test. Association was tested using chi-square statistics. A p value <0.05 was considered significant.

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