ABSTRACT
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a connective tissue disease affecting predominantly women that has been widely associated with obstetric complications. Inherited thrombophilias are significant risk factors for pregnancy loss, but their role in patients with SLE, and especially in those without concomitant secondary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) has not been clarified. The aim of the present study was to study PAI-1 5G/4G polymorphism in women with lupus. A total of 103 SLE patients as well as 69 healthy volunteers were genotyped for PAI-1 5G/4G (rs1799889). No significant differences in the PAI-1 5G/4G genotype prevalence between patients and controls were found. After exclusion of the women with secondary APS, the frequency of pregnancies and spontaneous abortions, as well as the number of live births were similar in the studied patients with different PAI-1 genotype (p> 0.05). PAI-1 5G/4G polymorphism was not significantly related to any of the lupus ACR criteria or disease activity (p > 0.05), but it could influence the platelet number in the studied patients (263.52 ± 91.10 [5G/5G genotype] versus 210.12 ± 71.79 [4G/4G genotype], p = 0.023). In conclusion, our results showed that PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism did not worsen the reproductive outcome in SLE women without secondary APS.
