Association of the TNF2 allele with eclampsia

The genetic background predisposing pregnant women to the disorder pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) is still unknown. There is compelling evidence to suspect involvement of the immune system in the development of PE/E. The aim of this current study was to investigate whether there is an association between the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α -307 polymorphism and PE or eclampsia. In this study, 51 cases of eclampsia, 122 cases of PE and 100 normotensive control cases were genotyped for the TNF-α -307 polymorphism. We found a significant difference between the TNF2 allele frequencies of eclamptic and normotensive controls (χ² = 6.3 and p = 0.025), but not of pre-eclamptic and normotensive controls (χ² = 0.5 and p = 1.0). We conclude from this study that the TNF2 allele contributes to the occurrence of eclampsia in our population.