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Lack of association of MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism and CTCFL mutations with sperm methylation errors in infertile patients

  • Genetics
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To find out whether the MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism is a risk factor for male infertility in the Spanish population. To determine if a pattern of sperm DNA hypomethylation at the paternally imprinted loci H19-ICR and/or IG-DMR is related to the MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism and/or CTCFL mutations.

Methods

One hundred and seven samples from individuals who sought consultation for fertility problems and twenty-five semen samples from sperm donors were analyzed. The MTHFR rs1801133 SNP was analyzed in all samples by the PCR-RFLP method. We compared the distribution of the genotypes between control and infertile populations and among the groups of patients with altered seminal parameters. In those patients with the most severe hypomethylation pattern (n = 12) we also analyzed the CTCFL protein-coding exons by sequencing.

Results

There were no significant differences in the distribution of the genotypes among the control and infertile populations. Moreover, none of the genotypes were associated, neither to the characteristics of the seminogram, nor to the presence of sperm DNA hypomethylation. We did not identify frameshift, nonsense or missense mutations of the CTCFL gene.

Conclusions

The MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism is not associated with male infertility in the Spanish population. Neither the MTHFR polymorphism, nor CTCFL mutations explain a pattern of sperm hypomethylation at paternally imprinting loci.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Javier Nadal and the embryologist from the Unidad de Reproducción Asistida of the Centro Médico Teknon (Barcelona, Spain) and the Laboratorio de Andrología y Banco de Semen of the Instituto Universitario IVI Valencia (Valencia, Spain) for providing the semen samples. This work was supported by Projects PS09/00330 (Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) and SGR2009–282 (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain). Marta Pladevall was the recipient of the grant number UAB2006–00213 from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitat de Biologia Cellular, Facultat de Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Cristina Camprubí, Marta Pladevall & Joan Blanco

  2. Unidad de Reproducción Asistida de Centro Médico Teknon, 08022, Barcelona, Spain

    Mark Grossmann & Maria C. Pons

  3. Laboratorio de Andrología y Banco de Semen, Instituto Universitario IVI Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Nicolás Garrido

Authors
  1. Cristina Camprubí
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  2. Marta Pladevall
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  3. Mark Grossmann
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  4. Nicolás Garrido
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  5. Maria C. Pons
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  6. Joan Blanco
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joan Blanco.

Additional information

Capsule The MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism is not associated with male infertility in the Spanish population. Neither the MTHFR polymorphism, nor CTCFL mutations explain a pattern of sperm hypomethylation at paternally imprinting loci.

Cristina Camprubí and Marta Pladevall contributed equally to this work.

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Supplemental Table 1

Age and spermiogram parameters of the infertile patients. (DOC 175 kb)

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Camprubí, C., Pladevall, M., Grossmann, M. et al. Lack of association of MTHFR rs1801133 polymorphism and CTCFL mutations with sperm methylation errors in infertile patients. J Assist Reprod Genet 30, 1125–1131 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-0013-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-013-0013-2

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