An Association Study between Longitudinal Changes of Leukocyte Telomere and the Risk of Azoospermia in a Population of Iranian Infertile Men

Authors
Hamed Heidary 1
Farkhondeh Pouresmaeili 1
Reza Mirfakhraie 1
Mir Davood Omrani 1
Hamid Ghaedi 1
Zahra Fazeli 1
Shadi Sayban 1
Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard 1
Eznollah Azargashb 2
Fazlollah Shokri 1
1 Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
10.29252/ibj.22.4.231
Abstract
Background: Telomeres are evolutionary, specialized terminal structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes containing TTAGGG repeats in human. Several human diseases have been known to be associated with dramatic changes in telomere length. The aim of the present study was to assess the correlation between the relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and infertility in a group of Iranian azoospermic males. Methods: In this case-control pilot study, relative telomere length (RTL) of peripheral blood leukocytes from a total of 30 idiopathic non-obstructive azoospermic males and 30 healthy fertile males was evaluated using real-time PCR. RTL was calculated as T (telomere)/S (single copy gene) ratio and compared between infertile and fertile groups. Results: Patients with azoospermia showed significantly shorter RTL than fertile males (0.54 vs. 0.84, p < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was estimated to be 99.8%, suggesting LTL as a potential marker for the diagnosis of azoospermia. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated a probable association between telomere shortening and azoospermia in a population of Iranian infertile men affected by idiopathic azoospermia.
Keywords
Azoospermia
Telomere
Male infertility
Spermatogenesis