Investigation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) polymorphism in patients with idiopathic heavy menstrual bleeding

Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is defined as menstruation at regular intervals but with excessive flow and duration. About half of the cases have no detected pathology. This suggests a defect in cellular processes and regulatory mechanisms of menstrual bleeding. It is estimated that this idiopathic HMB of endometrial origin (HMB-E) constitutes 9-14% of gynaecology outpatient clinic admissions. Disturbance of endometrial angiogenesis is one of the important underlying mechanisms of HMB-E. VEGF is the main regulatory factor that controls angiogenesis. In our study, it was aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the polymorphisms in the rs699947 (-2578C>A) , rs1570360 (-1154G>A) rs2010963 (+405G>C), rs3025039 (+936C>T), rs25648 (c534C>T) regions of the VEGF gene and HMB-E in 65 patients diagnosed with HMB-E according to the FIGO classification system and 65 female volunteers accepted as healthy. According to the results, the -2578C>A polymorphic region CC, CA+AA genotypes, and C allele, as well as the -1154G>A polymorphic region AA genotype, and A allele was associated with increased risk of HMB-E (all p<0.05). However, no statistically significant difference was found between the patients and controls in terms of genotype and allele distributions in the 405G>C, +936C>T, c534C>T polymorphic regions (all p>0.05). While the -2578/-1154/+405/c534 AGGC haplotype decreased the risk of HMB-E, CAGC haplotype was found to increase the risk of HMB-E. In conclusion, VEGF -2578C>A and -1154G>A polymorphisms were significantly associated with the risk of HMB-E in the Turkish population. It is thought that these results should be supported by studies to be conducted on larger case groups.