Analyzing Association of the IRF-5 rs10954213 Gene Polymorphism with the Risk of IdiopathicRecurrent Pregnancy Losses in South Iranian Women

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as the occurrence of two or more abortion before 20th week of gestation. The etiology of RPL is unknown in 50% of cases, which defines as idiopathic RPL (IRPL). Immune-related embryo injuries play an important role in the occurrence of RPL. Interferon regulatory factor-5 (IRF-5) is a member of IRF family of transcription factor, acts as upstream regulatory element of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, and TNF-α). The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between IRF-5 gene rs10954213 polymorphism in the occurrence of IRPL.
In this case- control study, blood samples were collected from 176 IRPL women with a history of at least 2 miscarriages with mean age of 34.2±10.9 years as the patient group, and 173 healthy postmenopausal women with at least two live births, and without a history of previous miscarriage (mean age±SD; 56.5±7.7 years) as the control group. Genotyping was performed using T-ARMS PCR. The data were analyzed using SPSS v.16 software.
Findings: The frequency of G allele was lower in cases compared to control subjects. This difference was statistically significant and supported the protective effect of this allele against miscarriage (OR: 0.7, 95%CI: 0.5-0.9, p=0.04). The frequency of G carriage genotypes (GG vs. AA) in women with IRPL was lower compared to the women of the control group and showed the protective role of this allele (OR:0.45, 95%CI:0.22-0.91, p-0.02).
Discussion & Regarding the results of the present study, the rs10954213G allele of the IRF-5 gene demonstrated a protective marker against idiopathic recurrent pregnancy losses in Iranian women.