Bahareh Maleki - Division of Genetics, Department of cellular and molecular biology and microbiology, Faculty of Science and technology, University of Isfahan, IR Iran
Sadeq Vallian - Division of Genetics, Department of cellular and molecular biology and microbiology, Faculty of Science and technology, University of Isfahan, IR Iran
Peyman Salehi - Urohealth clinic, Isfahan health care city, Isfahan, IR Iran

Background and Aim: Male infertility is one of the most common health problems affecting ۱۵% of couples worldwide. Failures in spermatogenesis have been considered as the main problem in male infertility. In male infertility, the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been shown to be altered. MiRNAs are single-stranded non-coding RNA molecules which represent a new class of diagnostic biomarkers that have been shown to play an important role in the regulation of various biological processes such as human fertility. These molecules play their role by binding to specific sites within the ۳'-UTR of mRNA molecules which result in the decrease of expression or degradation of these molecules. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the genes involved in male infertility and target microRNAs using bioinformatics approaches.Methods: Using KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) database, genes involved in spermatogenesis process were evaluated. Then the expression profile of these genes in the testis tissue was examined using GeneCards Database. After that, the network of these genes was drawn and the central nodes were depicted using STRING database. In the next step of this study, possible miRNAs targeting each selected gene were predicted using miRWalk database. Then, all of the selected miRNAs were checked and the genes with high scores were selected using miRmap database. The expression level of the selected miRNAs in testicular tissues was investigated using GeneCards database.Results: Among the genes studied, TNP۲, PRM, GSTM۳, DAZL, TDRD۱, RNF۱۷, FSHB, TDRD۶, ESR۱, LHB, DAZLAP۱, and FSHR had the high score which may represent their important role in spermatogenesis pathway of germ cell production. The data from miRmap and miRWalk showed hsa-miR-۴۶۹۲, hsa-miR-۴۵۱۴, hsa-miR-۴۷۲۲-۵p, and hsa-miR-۶۵۱۱a-۵p could target the expression of most of the above-analyzed genes.Conclusion: Together this in silico indicated that spermatogenesis was associated with a large number of genes that were targeted with many miRNAs. Analysis of the expression of these genes and miRNAs could result in the identification of novel markers for diagnosis and treatment of infertility related to alteration of spermatogenesis.

Male infertility; Spermatogenesis; MiRNA