Association of E-Cadherin Gene 3_-UTR C/T Polymorphism with Endometriosis

Abstract

Endometriosis (EM) is one of the most frequent diseases in gynecology; endometriotic cells display invasive characteristics,despite their benign histological appearance. Epithelial-cadherin (Ecadherin)is a cell-cell adhesive molecule which maintains cell integrity and communication between the intracellular and extracellular world. We investigated the relation between E-cadheringene 3-untranslated region (3-UTR) C/T polymorphism and EM in100 Egyptian women with EM and 100 women without EM. Thepolymerase chain reaction based restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to identify the digestible (C) and undigestible(T) polymorphism and compare the genotypes and allelic frequencies of this gene in both groups. The C allele frequency was significantly higher in the EM group than in the control group (odds ratio = 4.38,95% confidence interval = 2.78–6.90), and the C/C and C/T genotype frequencies were significantly higher in the EM group than in the control group. E-cadherin gene 3-UTR C/T polymorphism is a useful marker for predicting susceptibility to EM.

Keywords: Endometriosis, Epithelial-cadherin, 3-untranslated regionC/T polymorphism