Affiliations: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria | Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Landeskrankenhaus Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria | Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and
Intelligent Systems, Section for Clinical Biometrics, Medical University of
Vienna, Vienna, Austria | Department of Perinatal Medicine, The Royal Women's
Hospital, Parkville, Australia
Note: [] Corresponding author: Maximilian Schmid, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of Vienna General Hospital,
Waehringer Guertel 18–20, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Tel.: +43 1 40400 2822;
Fax: +43 1 40400 2995; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Oxytocin is crucially involved in the onset and maintenance of
labor. We investigated the association between oxytocin receptor gene
polymorphisms and preterm birth. The presence of four common oxytocin receptor
gene polymorphisms (rs2254298, rs53576, rs2228485 and rs237911) was evaluated
in one hundred women with preterm birth and one hundred healthy women using
restriction fragment length polymorphism genotyping. No association was found
between the presence of any individual oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism and
preterm birth. In haplotype analysis, the haplotype combination of rs2254298 A
allele, rs2228485 C allele and rs237911 G allele was found to be significantly
associated with an increased risk of preterm birth (OR=3.2 [CI 1.04–9.8],
p=0.043). In conclusion our findings suggest that a combination of three
oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms is associated with an increased risk for
preterm birth. We propose further studies investigating the role of oxytocin
receptor gene polymorphisms and preterm birth.
Keywords: Pregnancy, oxytocin receptor, single gene polymorphism, preterm birth
