Altered of microRNA expression level in oligospermic patients.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA (miRNA) is small endogenous, single strand RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level through several mechanisms to affect key cellular event including male germ cells differentiation, proliferation, development and apoptosis. Mutation and/or aberrant expression of miRNAs have been associated with progression of various disorders, including infertility. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research was to study the estrogen receptor beta (ERß(, hsa-mir-21 and, hsa-mir-22 expression level in oligospermic infertile and control fertile men and correlation between them. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, the change in mir-21, mir-22 expression and their common target gene (ERß) expression levels were evaluated in oligospermic infertile men (n= 43) compared with 43 age matched healthy control by Real-Time PCR methods. RESULTS: Expression analysis by qRT-PCR test on miRNA have identified that mir-21, mir-22 levels were significantly higher than those in normal controls (p<0.0001) and ERß expression level significantly decreased in comparison with the normal group (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that mir-21 and mir-22 are indirectly involved in spermatogenesis by regulating of the estrogen receptor and might have a diagnostic and prognostic value in men infertility.