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

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 casecontrol pilot study, relative telomere length (RTL) of peripheral blood leukocytes from a total of 30 idiopathic nonobstructive 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.

Is telomere length a biomarker of sperm quality? A systematic review and meta‐analysis of observational studies

“…Regarding TL in leukocytes, three studies reported lower leukocyte TL in infertile patients than in fertile men 24,28,36 . Similarly, longer leukocyte TL in 10 fertile men than in 10 oligozoospermic patients was reported by Amirzadegan et al 25 .…”

“…Regarding TL in leukocytes, three studies reported lower leukocyte TL in infertile patients than in fertile men. 24,28,36 Similarly, longer leukocyte TL in 10 fertile men than in 10 oligozoospermic patients was reported by Amirzadegan et al 25 On the other hand, Yang et al 37 reported shorter leukocyte TL in 349 nonobstructive azoospermia patients than in 247 obstructive azoospermia patients and 270 normospermic men, and results from the Tahamtan et al 30 study showed significantly lower leukocyte TL in men with infertility resulting from varicocoele than fertile controls. Only two studies found no differences in leukocyte TL between normozoospermic and oligozoospermic men 14 or between fertile and infertile subjects.…”

The association of female and male infertility with telomere length (Review)

“…A positive association between male infertility factors and TL was observed in 19 studies (68-86) and a negative association in 2 studies (39,87) (Table II). In total, 15 of the positively associated studies detected a sperm TL (STL) association (68-70,72,74-84), while 3 studies detected an LTL association (73,85,86), and one study detected both STL and LTL (71). In several studies, shorter STL was reported in association to infertility (72,76,78,80) while Vecoli et al reported an increase in STL in areas of high environmental exposure (77).…”

“…Moreover, samples that were used for IVF and had abnormal STLs did not produce a successful pregnancy, whereas samples that had STLs within the normal range had a 35.7% success rate (79). Likewise, males with azoospermia exhibited a shortened STL (69,70), as well as a shorter LTL (85,86).…”

Karyotypic abnormalities and molecular analysis of Y chromosome microdeletion in Iranian Azeri Turkish population infertile men

“…Infertility is characterized by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse (Vander Borght and Wyns 2018). Approximately one-half of infertility can be due to male-related factors or in combination with femalerelated fertility disorders (Heidary et al 2018). Male infertility usually occurs because of low sperm count or oligospermia, poor sperm motility, and morphological abnormalities (Hwang et al 2010).…”