Role of IL-17 Variants in Preeclampsia in Chinese Han Women

Previous studies have suggested an important role for IL-17, mainly secreted by Th17 cells, in the development of systemic inflammation in preeclampsia (PE). This study therefore investigated the association between genetic variants in IL-17A, IL-17F, and IL-17RA and susceptibility to PE in Chinese Han women. We recruited 1,031 PE patients and 1,298 controls of later pregnant women, and used TaqMan allelic discrimination real-time PCR to genotype the polymorphisms of IL17A rs2275913, IL-17F rs763780, and IL-17RA rs4819554. No significant differences in genotypic or allelic frequencies were found at all three polymorphic sites between PE patients and controls (rs2275913: genotype χ(2) = 0.218, p = 0.897 and allele χ(2) = 0.157, p = 0.692, OR = 1.024, 95%CI 0.911–1.152; rs763780: genotype χ(2) = 1.948, p = 0.377 and allele χ(2) = 1.242, p = 0.265, OR = 0.897, 95%CI 0.741–1.086; rs4819554: genotype χ(2) = 0.633, p = 0.729 and allele χ(2) = 0.115, p = 0.735, OR = 1.020, 95%CI 0.908–1.146). There were also no significant differences in genetic distributions between mild/severe PE or early/late-onset PE and control subgroups. Our data indicate that the genetic variants of rs2275913 in IL-17A, rs763780 in IL-17F, and rs4819554 in IL-17RA may not play a role in the pathogenesis of PE in Chinese Han women. However, these findings should be confirmed in other ethnic populations.