NFKB1 rs28362491 and pre-miRNA-146a rs2910164 SNPs on E-Cadherin expression in case of idiopathic oligospermia: A case-control study

Background: A notable proportion of idiopathic male infertility cases isaccompanied by oligozoospermia; and yet, the molecular mechanisms offertilization problem underlying this defect are still unclear. Epithelial cadherin hasbeen involved in several calcium-dependent cell-to-cell adhesion events; however,its participation in gamete interaction has also not been fully investigated.Objective: The aim was to investigate the changes in the expression of E-cadherin,based on the frequency of Single nucleotide polymorphisms in Nuclear FactorKappa-B 1 and pre-mir-146a in oligospermic men.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, semen and blood samples of131 oligospermic men as the case group and 239 fertile healthy men as the controlgroup were analyzed. Variants single nucleotide polymorphisms rs28362491 andrs2910164 were performed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragmentlength polymorphism method and E-cadherin expression were determined byimmunoprecipitation studies.Results: ins/ins genotype of rs28362491 was determined as a risk factor foridiopathic oligospermia by 1.73 times (p=0.0218), whereas no significantdifferences were found between the groups concerning pre-mir-146a rs2910164polymorphism (p=0.2274 in case of GC genotype and p=0.9052 in case of GGgenotype). Combined genotype analysis results did not show any notable differencesbetween the multiple comparisons of 28362491-rs2910164 in oligospermic men andcontrol groups. In addition, E-cadherin expression of oligospermic men with ins/insgenotype was significantly lower than patients with del/ins genotype (p=0.0221). Ecadherinexpression level was low in oligospermic men with respect to the controlgroup in presence of ins/ins genotype of NFKB1 gene.Conclusion: These results suggest that ins allele prevents binding of surfaceproteins to spermatozoa, leading to a low affinity of sperm-oocyte interaction inoligospermic men.

Keywords:

E-Cadherin , Oligospermia , Male infertility , Nuclear factor kappa B , Mir-146a