The association between single nucleotide polymorphism in interleukin-27 gene and recurrent pregnancy loss in Iranian women.

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) has been defined as two or more miscarriages before 20(th) week of gestation. It seems that IL-27 may reduce inflammatory responses and affect the survival of the embryo during human pregnancy. IL-27 polymorphisms may influence RPL by altering the levels or the activity of gene product.

Objective: We studied for the first time the association of IL-27 -964 A>G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with RPL in Iranian women.

Materials and methods: A case-controlled study was performed on two groups consisting of 150 healthy women with at least one delivery (control group) and 150 women with two or more primary RPLs history (RPL group). The -964 A>G SNP in IL-27 gene was determined by PCR-RFLP technique. Genotype and allele frequencies were compared using (2) tests between two groups.

Results: There was no difference between the two groups regarding age of women (29±4.4 [control] vs. 30.84±5.2 years [case]). In the RPL group, the genotype frequencies of -964 A>G polymorphism were AG (49.3%), AA (40%), and GG (10.7%), and in the control group, they were AG (43.3%), AA (48.7%), and GG (8%). There was no significant difference between the genotypes of AA, AG, and GG in two groups (p=0.23). As the frequency of allele A was 64.7% in the RPL group and 70.3% in the control group, the difference in frequency of allele A in -964 A>G between two groups was not significant (p=0.19).

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that SNP of -964 A>G in IL-27 gene is not a risk factor for RPL in Iranian women.