American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Volume 201, Issue 1 , Pages 94.e1-94.e10, July 2009

Association of genetic ancestry with preterm delivery and related traits among African American mothers

  • Hui-Ju Tsai, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Chicago, IL
    • Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprints: Hui-Ju Tsai, PhD, Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 2300 Children's Plaza, Box 157, Chicago, IL 60614-3394
    • ,
  • Yunxian Yu, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Chicago, IL
    • Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Zhejian University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
    • ,
  • Shanchun Zhang, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Chicago, IL
    • ,
  • Colleen Pearson, BA

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Katherin Ortiz, BA

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Xiping Xu, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Center for Population Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL
    • ,
  • Howard Bauchner, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Barry Zuckerman, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Xiaobin Wang, MD, MPH, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Children's Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Research Center, Chicago, IL
    • Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Received 2 October 2008; received in revised form 20 December 2008; accepted 26 February 2009. published online 18 May 2009.

Objective

In the United States, the rate of preterm delivery (PTD) is higher in African Americans (17.8%) than non-Hispanic whites (11.5%). Such disparity cannot be fully explained by differences in socioenvironmental factors.

Study Design

We genotyped 812 mothers in a case-control PTD study at Boston Medical Center who self-reported their ethnicity as “black.” Regression analysis and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were applied to evaluate ancestral distribution and the association between genetic ancestry and PTD-related traits, as well as the potential confounding effect of population stratification.

Results

The estimated African ancestral proportion was 0.90 ± 0.13. We found significant associations of ancestral proportion with PTD as a whole and PTD subgrouped by the presence of maternal hypertensive disorders. We did not observe significant confounding as a result of population stratification in this case-control PTD study.

Conclusion

Our data underline the need for more intensive investigation of genetic admixture in African Americans to identify novel susceptibility genes of PTD.

Key words: admixture, genetic ancestry, population stratification

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 The study was supported in part by Grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD41702; K24 HD 042489), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES11682, R21ES11666), March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation (20-FY98-0701, 20-FY02-56 and #21-FY07-605), and Food Allergy Project.

 Drs Tsai and Yu contributed equally to this work.

 Cite this article as: Tsai H-J, Yu Y, Zhang S, et al. Association of genetic ancestry with preterm delivery and related traits among African American mothers. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2009;201:94.e1-10.

PII: S0002-9378(09)00218-X

doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2009.02.027

American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Volume 201, Issue 1 , Pages 94.e1-94.e10, July 2009

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