Meta-analysis of associations between interleukin-10 polymorphisms and susceptibility to pre-eclampsia

Objective To investigate whether interleukin-10 (IL-10) polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to pre-eclampsia. Methods A meta-analysis was conducted on the associations between IL-10-1082 G/A, -819 C/T and -592 C/A polymorphisms and pre-eclampsia using allele contrast, a recessive model, a dominant model and an additive model. Results Thirteen groups from 11 papers involving 1534 patients with pre-eclampsia and 2271 controls were considered in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of the IL-10-1082 G/A polymorphism in 3500 study subjects revealed no association between pre-eclampsia and the IL-10-1082 G allele [odds ratio (OR) 0.890, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.729-1.087; p = 0.254]. Stratification by ethnicity indicated an association between the IL-10-1082 G allele and pre-eclampsia in the Iranian groups (OR 1.408, 95% CI 1.097-1.807; p = 0.007), but not in the European groups (OR 0.759, 95% CI 0.506-1.136; p = 0.180). Meta-analysis revealed an association between pre-eclampsia and the IL-10-819 C allele in all study subjects (OR 1.296, 95% CI 1.012-1.661; p = 0.040), particularly among the Iranian groups (OR 1.390, 95% CI 1.067-1.811; p = 0.015). Meta-analysis showed no association between pre-eclampsia and the IL-10-592 C allele (OR 1.215, 95% CI 0.967-1.527; p = 0.094) in any groups, except for the Iranian groups (OR 1.380, 95% CI 1.056-1.805; p = 0.018). However, the associations found in the meta-analysis became non-significant after exclusion of the studies in which the controls showed deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Conclusions This meta-analysis suggests that IL-10-1082 G/A, -819 C/T and -592 C/A polymorphisms are unlikely to be important in susceptibility to pre-eclampsia.