Genetic association of the NQO1 rs1800566 (609C>T) variant with risk of preeclampsia in the Chinese Han population.

AIMS: The NQO1 gene, located on chromosome 16q22, encodes NAD(P)H dehydrogenase 1, an enzyme that can reduce the production of reactive oxygen species and thereby protect cells from oxidative damage. A functional variant of NQO1, rs1800566 (c.C609T/p.Pro187Ser), has significantly less enzymatic activity. Oxidative imbalance plays an important role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia (PE). The purpose of our study is to investigate whether the NQO1 variant is associated with susceptibility to PE in Chinese women.

METHOD: DNA was extracted from 1028 PE patients and 1400 normal pregnant women. We analyzed the genotypic and allelic distribution of the NQO1 rs1800566 variant using TaqMan allelic discrimination real-time PCR. Data were analyzed by SPSS v. 22.0 software.

RESULTS: Although the rs1800566 variant affected NQO1 enzymatic activity, our results showed no statistically significant differences in the genotypic and allelic distribution of rs1800566 in PE patients compared with controls (allele: X2 =2.736, p=0.098, OR=0.908, 95% CI=0.810-1.018; genotype: X2 =3.694, p=0.158). In addition, we observed no statistically significant differences in these distributions between the control group and case sub-groups with mild versus severe PE or early-onset versus late-onset PE.

CONCLUSION: Although our study indicated that the NQO1 rs1800566 variant may not have an effect on risk of PE in Chinese Han women, further studies of other loci are necessary to clarify the exact role of NQO1 in the pathogenesis of PE.