The genetics of preterm birth: using what we know to design better association studies.

ABSTRACT: Women delivering preterm are at greatly increased risk of another preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies, reflecting effects of the environment, genetics, or both. Recent literature tells an increasingly coherent story about genetic susceptibility. Women who change partners after delivering preterm retain their elevated risk, whereas fathers who change partners do not. Women who themselves were preterm are at increased risk, an association not seen in fathers. Women with a half-sister who delivered preterm are at increased risk only if the shared parent was the mother. Concordance for preterm delivery is elevated in monozygotic compared with dizygotic twin mothers but not in monozygotic twin fathers. Several mechanisms could be operating: mitochondrial genes, maternal genes, or fetal gene

SUBMITTER: Weinberg CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2800265 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature