Antihypertensive therapy in preeclampsia is not modulated by VEGF polymorphisms.

Introduction: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is relevant for healthy pregnancy, and abnormalities in VEGF functions have been associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Our group recently demonstrated that VEGF genetic polymorphisms affect the susceptibility to preeclampsia (PE).

Objective: Therefore, in this study our aim is to examine whether VEGF polymorphisms affect the antihypertensive responses in women with PE.

Methods: We studied 113 white PE women who were stratified according to blood pressure levels after antihypertensive treatment (46 responsive, R group and 67 non-responsive, NR group). We then compared the frequencies of two VEGF genetic polymorphisms (C-2578A and G-634C) between R and NR groups.

Results: We found no significant differences in genotype or allele distributions between R and NR groups (P > 0.05). In addition, no difference was observed in overall distribution of haplotypes (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that VEGF polymorphisms do not affect responsiveness to the antihypertensive therapy in PE.