Tumour necrosis factor-α receptor 1 polymorphisms and serum soluble TNFR1 in early spontaneous miscarriage

Objectives: The study investigated the association of TNFR1 gene polymorphism with early recurrent spontaneous miscarriage (ERSM) in Chinese women, and soluble TNFR1 (sTNFR1) expression in ERSM women. Study design: Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located at -383 (AGA to AGC) in the promoter region and +36 (CCA to CCG) in exon 1 of TNFR1 were investigated in 188 non-pregnant ERSM Chinese women. The serum sTNFR1 was measured by the ELISA method. Results: Both SNPs were not associated with ERSM. The non-pregnant ERSM women had significantly higher levels of serum sTNFR1, compared with the non-pregnant, normal women (1.84 +/- 0.54 ng/ml versus 1.62 +/- 0.38 ng/ml; t = -2.053; p < 0.05). Conclusions: The data do not provide evidence that TNFR1 gene polymorphism is etiologically important for ERSM in Chinese women. But, a significantly raised sTNFR1 level in non-pregnant ERSM women was recorded compared to women with normal pregnancies. The result suggests that pregnancy failure is associated with an increase of sTNFR1. (c) 2007 International Federation for Cell Biology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.