目的:不孕症是指在正常无保护性行为12个月后无法怀孕。miRNA表达变化可作为男性精子发生受损导致不育的潜在生物标志物。进行这项研究以测量血浆样品中miR-211的表达水平作为与对照组相比鉴定不孕症的因素。
方法:在本研究中,血浆取自不育男性(n=103)非梗阻性无精子症(NOA)或严重少精子症(SO)和对照组(n=121)。通过qRT-PCR评估血浆中循环miR-211的表达。使用2-ΔΔCT方法采用相对定量策略来计算两个研究组中的靶miR-211表达水平。
结果:与对照组相比,不育男性的血浆miR-211水平显着降低(分别为0.544±0.028和1.203±0.035,p<0.001)。Pearson相关分析表明,miR-211表达水平与精子参数呈显著正相关,包括精子浓度,精子总运动性,渐进运动,形态正常(p<0.001)。
结论:血浆中miR-211的表达降低似乎与男性不育有关。本实验表明,miR-211可以被认为是一种生物标志物进行评估,诊断,男性不育精液分析结果的确认。
OBJECTIVE: Infertility is inability to conceive after 12 months of regular unprotected sex. MiRNA expression changes can serve as potential biomarkers for infertility in males due to impaired spermatogenesis. This research was conducted to measure the expression level of miR-211 in plasma samples as a factor identifying infertility in comparison with the control group.
METHODS: In this study, blood plasma were taken from the infertile men (n = 103) nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) or severe oligozoospermia (SO) and the control group (n = 121). The expression of circulating miR-211 in plasma was assessed by qRT-PCR. A relative quantification strategy was adopted using the 2-ΔΔCT method to calculate the target miR-211 expression level in both study groups.
RESULTS: Plasma miR-211 levels were significantly lower in infertile men compared to the control group (0.544 ± 0.028 and 1.203 ± 0.035, respectively, p < 0.001). Pearson\'s correlation analysis showed that miR-211 expression level has a positive and significant correlation with sperm parameters, including sperm concentration, sperm total motility, progressive motility, and normal morphology (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Decreased expression of miR-211 in blood plasma seems to be associated with male infertility. This experiment showed that miR-211 can be considered as a biomarker for evaluation, diagnosis, and confirmation of the results of semen analysis in male infertility.