Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a complex disorder defined as the cessation of ovarian function before or at the age of 40. Although the etiology of POF remains unknown in a large proportion of cases, it has been suggested that variations in the Inhibin α gene (INHA) may affect the ovarian function of women. This study was performed to investigate whether the genetic polymorphisms of the INHA gene are associated with idiopathic POF in a Korean population.

Methods: The subjects consisted of 159 idiopathic POF patients and 233 postmenopausal controls. Genotyping for −16C>T polymorphism was performed by MGB primer/probe Taqman assay, and −124A>G polymorphism was identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Haplotypes were deduced by using the Haploview version 4.1.

Results: There were no significant differences in the genotype distributions or allele frequencies of the INHA gene −16C>T and −124A>G polymorphisms between the POF and the control group. Haplotype analysis also showed no significant difference between groups.

Conclusion: The distribution of the INHA gene promoter polymorphisms in a Korean POF population was not significantly different from controls, implying that the INHA gene polymorphisms may not be associated with the risk of idiopathic POF.

Keywords: inhibin-α, polymorphism, premature ovarian failure.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.