Polymorphisms of toll-like receptors 2, 3 and 4 in patients that do and do not enter labour spontaneously at term

To assess the association of polymorphisms of toll-like receptors (TLRs) 2, 3 and 4 with the delay in onset of labour at term pregnancies, patients delivering at >37 weeks and without pre-eclampsia, IUGR or a history of preterm delivery were prospectively evaluated. TLR2 Arg753Gln, TLR3 (c.1377C/T) and TLR4 Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile polymorphisms were genotyped by using PCR-RFLP. Patients labouring spontaneously before the 41st week were compared with those who did not labour spontaneously until this week in terms of baseline characteristics, TLR 2, 3 and 4 polymorphisms. The same comparisons were also performed by using a 40th week cut-off. Chi-square test, two-sample t-test or Mann-Whitney U tests were used for comparisons, as appropriate. In total, 79 patients delivering after 37 weeks were evaluated. All had CC genotype for TLR2 Arg753Gln and TLR4 Thr399Ile. There were no significant differences for TLR4 Asp299Gly GA and TLR3 (c.1377C/T) polymorphisms between patients spontaneously entering or not entering labour until the 41st week; the same was true when the 40th week cut-off was used. Delay in onset of labour at term pregnant women does not seem to be affected by the presence of TLR 2, 3 or 4 polymorphisms. Further studies are needed.