Methylation Status of Promoter and Oligozoospermia Risk: An Epigenetic Study and in Silico Analysis.

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the effects of promoter methylation of on oligozoospermia risk, followed by an in silico analysis.

Materials And Methods: In a case-control study, semen samples were collected from infertile and healthy control men. promoter region was amplified by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Finally, the promoter region of was analyzed by bioinformatics software.

Results: Our data revealed significant associations of CpG island promoter methylation with oligozoospermia in a case-control study. In silico analysis showed that promoter contains a strong nucleosome exclusion region, a bonafide CGIs, six PROSITE motifs without a defined TATA box and 14 transcription factor (TF) binding sites, which are directly involved in spermatogenesis.

Conclusion: Based on our findings, methylation of the gene promoter region may be a risk factor for oligozoospermia. However, this is a preliminary report representing data for future comprehensive studies to make a clinical conclusion on the potential biomarker role of methylation of this promoter in elevating susceptibility to oligozoospermia.