Fatemeh AKBARIAN, Mitra ATAEI, Massoud HOUSHMAND, Mahba Ataei TALEBI, Peyman DOLATI, Maryam MOBARAKI, Abolfazl FARAJI

Analysis of partial AZFc (gr/gr, b1/b3, and b2/b3) deletions in Iranian oligozoospermia candidates for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

Background/aim: Infertility is a main health issue. The human Y chromosome contains essential genes for spermatogenesis, especiallythose located on four major intervals defined as AZFa, AZFb, AZFc, and AZFd. A partial deletion of the AZFc region is reported as asignificant risk factor for oligo-/azoospermia. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of partial deletions in theAZFc region (gr/gr, b1/b3, and b2/b3) in Iranian oligozoospermic candidates for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.Materials and methods: Multiplex PCR was used to assess the micro and partial deletions in 60 oligozoospermia infertile and 80 fertilemen.Results: Two cases (3.33%) showed AZFb deletion but no microdeletion was detected in the control samples. In the AZFc region, 20%of the patients showed deletions, in which 15% and 5% showed gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions, respectively. However, 10% of the healthyindividuals also showed partial deletions, including gr/gr (7.5%) and b2/b3 (2.5%). No significant correlation was detected between thepresence of gr/gr microdeletion in patients and controls (P > 0.05).Conclusion: Our study showed that the partial AZFc deletions are not associated with male infertility in Iranian subjects.

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