Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2010) 22 P528

ECE2010 Poster Presentations Male reproduction (28 abstracts)

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene (GLU298ASP VARIANT) in infertile men with asthenozoospermia

Eddi Buldreghini 1 , Reda Z Mahfouz 2 , Arianna Vignini 3 , Ashok Agarwal 2 & Giancarlo Balercia 1


1Department of Internal Medicine and Applied Biotechnologies, Umberto I Hospital, School of Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Marche, Italy; 2Center for Reproductive Medicine, Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, & Ob-Gyn and Women’s Health Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA; 3Institute of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Marche, Italy.


Objective(s): Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) G894T may affect the oxidative stress–response. Our objective was to examine G894T SNP eNOS genotype frequencies and its potential role with sperm motility in infertile men. Through this prospective controlled study in the Andrology Unit, we have enrolled infertile (n=70) and healthy (n=60) men. Sperm motion kinetics assessed by computer assisted semen analysis (CASA), and allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RFLP) to investigate the frequency of guanine (G) thymine (T) at position −894 within exon 7 of the eNOS gene.

Finding(s): An increased frequency of the G894T eNOS (T) allele observed in asthenozoospermic patients (P=0.02). In asthenozoospermic men, homozygotes eNOS (TT) genotyping showed low percentages of rapid motile sperm (a+b) compared to wild-type eNOS (GG) (P=0.02) or heterozygotes eNOS (GT) genotyping (P=0.01). In Fertile men, wild-type eNOS showed high percentages of rapid motile sperm (a+b) compared to eNOS (TT) (P=0.03) or eNOS (GT) genotyping (P=0.04).

Conclusion(s): Our findings suggest that the T allele, encoding for aspartic acid, of the eNOS (Glu298Asp) gene may play a role with low sperm motility.

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