Association of-308GA TNF-α gene polymorphism and spontaneous preterm birth in Acehnese ethnic group, Indonesia : this polymorphism is not associated with preterm birth

Abstract EN

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) gene promoter (308G/A TNFA) is associated with higher gene expression.

The role of this SNP as a risk factor for spontaneous preterm birth has been assessed in some regions and the findings were significantly different between race and ethnic groups.

Aim: To provide the scientific evidence whether allele A within SNP 308G/A TNFA promoter is a risk factor for spontaneous preterm birth among Acehnese ethnic or not.

Subjects and methods: In this case–control study, the genotypes of SNP 308G/A TNFA among 40 patients with spontaneous preterm birth and 40 patients with term birth were determined by realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

The concentrations of TNF-a from blood were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

The differences in genotype distributions, dominant and recessive models, and allele frequencies between case and control groups were analyzed with Chi-squared test.

Deviation of genotype frequencies from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was assessed by Fisher’s exact test.

Results: This study found that the concentration of TNF-a between preterm and control groups was not statistically different, 5.5± 2.9 mg/dL vs.

10.1± 17.9 mg/dL, p= 0.112.

The level of TNF-a had no strong association with either genotype distribution or allele frequency of SNP 308G/A TNFA.

Furthermore, there was no association between mutant genotypes and spontaneous preterm birth (OR: 0.32; 95%CI: 0.08–1.33, p= 0.096) and between mutant allele and spontaneous preterm birth (OR: 0.35; 95%CI: 0.09–1.37, p= 0.105).

Conclusion: SNP 308G/A TNFA is not associated with spontaneous preterm birth in Acehnese ethnic group.