Association between a PD-1 gene polymorphism and antisperm antibody-related infertility in Iranian men

Abstract

Objective: Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1, Pdcd1), an immunoreceptor belonging to the CD28/CTLA-4 family negatively regulates antigen receptor signalling by recruiting protein tyrosine phosphatase, SHP-2 upon interacting with either of two ligands, PD-L1 or PD-L2. This study investigates PD-1 gene polymorphism in patients with antisperm antibody-related infertility. Methods: Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme digestion (PCR-RFLP), this polymorphism was genotyped in 145 Iranian subjects (61 patients with antisperm antibody-related infertility and 84 healthy controls). Results: Patients frequencies of the G/A genotype in comparison with healthy controls (38.2 % vs. 32.7 %, OR =1.21, P = 0.35) were not significantly different. However, G/G and A/A genotype frequencies between patients and healthy controls were significantly different (P = 0.042, P = 0.00001, respectively). Also, allele frequencies of this polymorphism were significantly different (P = 0.0012) in patients compared to healthy controls. Conclusion: According to these results, there is a correlation between PD-1 gene polymorphism and susceptibility to antisperm antibody-related infertility in our study group.