1. Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene polymorphism and expression in pre-eclampsia
- Author
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H. Z. Zheng, Rhoda Wilson, S. H. Wang, G. Chen, James J. Walker, and J. H. McKillop
- Subjects
Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Immunology ,Cell ,Gene Expression ,Biology ,Preeclampsia ,Pre-Eclampsia ,Pregnancy ,Internal medicine ,Gene expression ,Leukocytes ,medicine ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,RNA, Messenger ,Allele ,Gene ,DNA Primers ,Polymorphism, Genetic ,Base Sequence ,Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ,Original Articles ,medicine.disease ,Cytokine ,Endocrinology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Female ,Tumor necrosis factor alpha ,Gene polymorphism - Abstract
SUMMARY Pre-eclampsia is an endothelial disorder and TNF-α has fundamental effects on endothelial cells by several means, including altering the balance between oxidant and anti-oxidant, changing the pattern of prostaglandin production and affecting expression of several cell surface components. To determine whether TNF-α mRNA expression is increased in pre-eclamptic patients, leucocytes from pre-eclamptic patients, normal pregnant women and normal non-pregnant women were studied for TNF-α expression using a quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Using a model of 373A ABI Sequencer, TNF-α gene polymorphism was also analysed by GENESCAN and Genotyper software in order to explain the mechanism of abnormal TNF-α expression. Our results show that TNF-α mRNA expression is significantly elevated in pre-eclamptic patients compared with the other two control groups. The high expression of TNF-α may be associated with the TNF1 allele, whose frequency is markedly increased in pre-eclamptic patients. These observations are consistent with a major role for TNF-α in mediating endothelial disturbances, and suggest a key role for TNF-α in the development of pre-eclampsia.
- Published
- 1996