ANGIOTENSINOGEN GENE VARIATION IN A POPULATION CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF PREECLAMPSIA ECLAMPSIA IN AUSTRALIANS AND CHINESE/

Preeclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) is a common disease of human pregnancy w ith a strong genetic component. The etiology of PE/E is unknown. Two r ecent reports indicated that the angiotensinogen gene (AGT) could be i nvolved in susceptibility to PE/E. We performed a population-based cas e-control study in Australian and Chinese populations to investigate w hether AGT is a good candidate gene for PE/E. A microsatellite polymor phism within AGT was typed as well as a molecular variant T235 (Met--> Thr) of AGT using allele-specific PCR and allele-induced restriction s ite PCR. The allele distributions of the microsatellite and the varian t T235 of AGT were significantly different between the two ethnic grou ps. However, no significant allele associations were found with diseas e when comparing PE/E patients and controls in Australian or Chinese p opulations, which is in contrast to the two earlier reports. The resul ts suggest that the contribution of AGT to the occurrence of PE/E is s mall, if anything, and is not constant across populations.