Clin Exp Reprod Med.  2021 Mar;48(1):69-79. 10.5653/cerm.2020.03706.

Association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the ESR2 and FSHR genes with poor ovarian response in infertile Jordanian women

• Sindiani AM
• Batiha O
• Al-zoubi E
• Khadrawi S
• Alsoukhni G
• Alkofahi A
• Alahmad NA
• Shaaban S
• Alshdaifat E
• Abu-Halima M

• KMID: 2513277
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5653/cerm.2020.03706

Abstract

Objective
Poor ovarian response (POR) refers to a subnormal follicular response that leads to a decrease in the quality and quantity of the eggs retrieved after ovarian stimulation during assisted reproductive treatment (ART). The present study investigated the associations of multiple variants of the estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) genes with POR in infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART.
Methods
Four polymorphisms, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, FSHR rs6165, and FSHR rs6166, were investigated in 60 infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART (the case group) and 60 age-matched fertile women (the control group), with a mean age of 33.60±6.34 years. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected by restriction fragment length polymorphism and then validated using Sanger sequencing.
Results
The p-value of the difference between the case and control groups regarding FSHR rs6166 was very close to 0.05 (p=0.054). However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the other three SNPs, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, and FSHR rs6165 (p=0.561, p=0.433, and p=0.696, respectively).
Conclusion
The association between FSHR rs6166 and POR was not statistically meaningful in the present study, but the near-significant result of this experiment suggests that statistical significance might be found in a future study with a larger number of patients.

Keyword

Estrogen receptor; Follicle-stimulating hormone receptor; Ovarian stimulation; Single-nucleotide polymorphism