Impact of oxidative stress SNPs on sperm DNA damage and male infertility in a south-east Iranian population.

Aim: We examined four single nucleotide polymorphisms in four antioxidant genes (PON1 , CAT , GPx1 and SOD2 ) in 100 infertility cases and 100 controls from an Iranian population-based case-control study to confirm the assumption that polymorphisms in oxidative stress genes increase the risk of sperm DNA damage and idiopathic male infertility.

Methods: Restriction fragment length polymorphism and tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system PCR were used to identify genotypes. Sperm DNA damage was assessed using the Sperm Chromatin Dispersion test (Halo Sperm), and the total antioxidant capacity of seminal fluid was determined using the FRAP assay.