Telomeres are evolutionary conserved, multifunctional DNA-protein complexes located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres maintain chromosome stability and genome integrity and also play an important role in meiosis which aid in synapsis, homologous recombination, and segregation. Sperm telomere has been reported to play an important role in fertilization and embryo development. Nowadays, the association between telomere and reproduction is one of the major areas of interest, however whether sperm telomere associated with male infertility is not clear. In this study, in order to find out the association between Chinese idiopathic infertility and sperm telomere length, we analyzed the difference of sperm telomere length between idiopathic infertile men and normal fertile men, as well as the correlations between sperm telomere length and human semen characteristics. We analyzed 126 Chinese idiopathic infertile men and 138 normal fertile men for sperm telomere length by using quantitative PCR. We found that the relative sperm mean telomere length of infertile men was significantly shorter than that of fertile men (2.894±0.115 vs. 4.016±0.603, P=5.097×10-5). Both sperm count and semen progressive motility are related with telomere length. Our results suggest that sperm telomere length is associated with idiopathic male infertility of China and we proposed the possibility that shorter telomeres in sperm chromosome will reduce spermatogenesis and sperm functions, which finally affected the fertility of male.
Shuyuan Liu,Changjun Zhang,Haiying Peng,Xiaoqin Huang,Hao Sun,Keqin Lin,Kai Huang,Jiayou Chu,Zhaoqing Yang
. Association study of telomere length with idiopathic male infertility[J]. Hereditas(Beijing), 2015
, 37(11)
: 1137
-1142
.
DOI: 10.16288/j.yczz.15-267
[1] Singh K, Jaiswal D. Human male infertility: a complex multifactorial phenotype. Reprod Sci , 2011, 18(5): 418- 425.
[2] 阮健, 杜卫东. 男性不育与基因缺陷. 遗传, 2010, 32(5): 411-422.
[3] Poongothai J, Gopenath TS, Manonayaki S. Genetics of human male infertility. Singapore Med J , 2009, 50(4): 336-347.
[4] Rodríguez S, Goyanes V, Segrelles E, Blasco M, Gosálvez J, Fernández JL. Critically short telomeres are associated with sperm DNA fragmentation. Fertil Steril , 2005, 84(4): 843-845.
[5] Liu L, Blasco MA, Trimarchi JR, Keefe DL. An essential role for functional telomeres in mouse germ cells during fertilization and early development. Dev Biol , 2002, 249(1): 74-84.
[6] Keefe DL, Franco S, Liu L, Trimarchi J, Cao BN, Weitzen S, Agarwal S, Blasco MA. Telomere length predicts embryo fragmentation after in vitro fertilization in women-toward a telomere theory of reproductive aging in women. Am J Obstet Gynecol , 2005, 192(4): 1256-1260.
[7] Thilagavathi J, Venkatesh S, Dada R. Telomere length in reproduction. Andrologia , 2013, 45(5): 289-304.
[8] Campbell PJ. Telomeres and cancer: from crisis to stability to crisis to stability. Cell , 2012, 148(4): 633-635.
[9] Thilagavathi J, Kumar M, Mishra SS, Venkatesh S, Kumar R, Dada R. Analysis of sperm telomere length in men with idiopathic infertility. Arch Gynecol Obstet , 2013, 287(4): 803-807.
[10] Ferlin A, Rampazzo E, Rocca MS, Keppel S, Frigo AC, De Rossi A, Foresta C. In young men sperm telomere length is related to sperm number and parental age. Hum Reprod , 2013, 28(12): 3370-3376.
[11] Esteves SC, Zini A, Aziz N, Alvarez JG, Sabanegh ES, Jr., Agarwal A. Critical appraisal of World Health Organization's new reference values for human semen characteristics and effect on diagnosis and treatment of subfertile men. Urology , 2012, 79(1): 16-22.
[12] Cawthon RM. Telomere measurement by quantitative PCR. Nucleic Acids Res , 2002, 30(10): e47.
[13] O'Callaghan NJ, Dhillon VS, Thomas P, Fenech M. A quantitative real-time PCR method for absolute telomere length. BioTechniques , 2008, 44(6): 807-809.
[14] Hemann MT, Rudolph KL, Strong MA, DePinho RA, Chin L, Greider CW. Telomere dysfunction triggers developmentally regulated germ cell apoptosis. Mol Biol Cell , 2001, 12(7): 2023-2030.
[15] Ferlin A, Foresta C. New genetic markers for male infertility. Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol , 2014, 26(3): 193-198.
[16] 刘静宇, 代小华, 曾宪录, 张传善, 郝水, 宋运淳. 男性育性障碍与联会复合体异常的关系. 遗传, 2005, 27(5): 819-827.
[17] Moskovtsev SI, Willis J, White J, Mullen JBM. Disruption of telomere-telomere interactions associated with DNA damage in human spermatozoa. Syst Biol Reprod Med , 2010, 56(6): 407-412.
[18] Evenson DP, Wixon R. Clinical aspects of sperm DNA fragmentation detection and male infertility. Theriogenology , 2006, 65(5): 979-991.
