ECE2017 Eposter Presentations: Reproductive Endocrinology Male Reproduction (26 abstracts)
1C.I. Parhon National Institute of Endocrinology, Bucharest, Romania; 2Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania; 3Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, Bucharest, Romania.
The CDX2 VDR polymorphism (rs11568820) is located in the promoter region of exon 1 in the 5′-untranslated region of the VDR gene.
Objective: The current investigation examines the association between CDX2 VDR polymorphism and male infertility.
Subjects and methods: The study was conducted on 69 infertile men, aged between 20 and 50 years, divided into three groups, based on spermatic parameters: group with azoospermia (19 subjects), group with severe oligospermia (38 subjects), group with oligospermia (12 subjects), and 37 age-matched controls. CDX-2 VDR gene polymorphisms were performed by PCR-RFLP. Vitamin D was assessed by electrochemiluminiscent method.
Results: The evaluation of Vitamin D levels was found to be significantly decreased in infertile patients group versus controls (P=0.0198). The lowest Vitamin D levels were characteristic for azoospermia patient group (median=18.34 ng/ml, range=14.8919.6 ng/ml), than controls (median=24 ng/ml, range=18.236.10 ng/ml). The analyses for CDX2 VDR polymorphism in infertile patients showed that six cases were homozygote (GG), 28 heterozygote (GA) and 35 homozygote (AA). The frequency of G allele was 0.29, and 0.71 for A allele, χ2=0.014. In control group the analyses of CDX2 VDR polymorphism revealed that 10 cases were homozygote for G allele (GG), 19 were heterozygote (GA) and 8 were homozygote (AA). The frequency of G allele in population was 0.53, for A allele the frequency was 0.47, χ2=0.033. The controls and infertile groups were compared using χ2-test and the difference was significant (P=0.0229). The GG genotype was found in a low percentage in patients group than controls (8.7% vs 27.03%), and the percentage of AA genotype was higher in infertile group (50.72% vs 21.62%).
Conclusion: Despite numerous publications, the influence of Vitamin D on reproductive health remains ambiguous. Our study showed that infertile patients present low levels of Vitamin D. According the results the A allele may represents a potential risk for male infertility.