It is estimated that 10%-20% of patients with male infertility could have reduced androgen receptor function as a result of long polyglutamine tracts. To study the association of CAG trinucleotide repeats in the androgen receptor gene with idiopathic male infertility in Iranian population we performed a case-control study of 178 Iranian males with idiopathic infertility which were excluded for androgen receptor mutations and 210 fertile males as control. We identified 13 different alleles in the infertile group ranging from 18 to 32 CAG repeats and 11 different alleles in control groups ranging from 16 to 28. The length of the CAG repeat segment was evaluated using PCR-sequencing of exon 1 and PCR-SSCP of exons 2-8. The mean length of CAG repeats was significantly different between infertile and fertile groups (24.13 +/- 1.64 vs. 20.55 +/- 2.73). The odds ratio for male infertility was higher for patients with >/=26 CAG repeat than in those with <26 CAG repeats. Long (>/=26) androgen receptor CAG alleles, which are found in up to 38% of infertile males, are associated with male infertility and defective spermatogenesis.

Written by
Radpour R, Zhong X, Tavasoly A, Solati S, Holzgreve W.

Reference
J Androl. 2008 Feb 7. Epub ahead of print.
doi:10.2164/jandrol.107.004192

PubMed Abstract
PMID:18263633

UroToday.com Male Infertility and Reproduction Section

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