Association between 49 infant gene polymorphisms and preterm delivery.

The occurrence of preterm delivery has been increasing in the U.S. Previous studies have identified risk factors for preterm delivery that may have genetic influences. We conducted a case-control study comparing the frequencies of 49 genetic polymorphisms among 62 preterm infants and 553 term infants. The polymorphisms that we examined were involved in xenobiotic-metabolism, blood pressure, coagulation, the inflammatory response, cell-cell interaction, or folate-homocysteine metabolism. Univariate analyses on the individual polymorphisms revealed a statistically significant effect for the variant genotypes compared to the wildtype genotypes in SERPINE1 11053G > T (OR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.2-0.8). This finding suggests the coagulation/thrombophilic pathway may influence the development of preterm delivery.