• PMID: 15337466
• Gene Name: AR
• Condition: Male infertility
• Association: Astatistically significant relationship between the size of the CAG repeat and impaired sperm production in Tunisian population was not found. Our results may be attributed to the high probability that infertile males may represent a heterogeneous group w
• PMID: 15337466
• Gene Name: AR
• Condition: Male infertility
• Association: The results may be attributed to the high probability that infertile males may represent a heterogeneous group with respect to the causes of defective spermatogenesis.
• Population size: 227
• Population details: 227 (129 infertile men, 98 fertile men)
• Sex: Male
• Infertility type: Male infertility
• Other associated phenotypes: Male infertility

Androgen receptor gene CAG repeats length in fertile and infertile Tunisian men

Hadjkacem L, Hadj-Kacem H, Boulila A, Bahloul A, Ayadi H, Ammar-Keskes L.

Several reports implicated a relation between the trinucleotide (CAG) repeat length in the androgen receptor (AR) gene and male infertility. But such result was not reproduced in others. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the number of (CAG) repeats in the AR gene among two groups of infertile (n = 129) and fertile Tunisian men (n = 98), using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the AR CAG repeat tract, followed by electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel (6%). For statistical analysis we used Student, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and chi(2)-tests. Significance was reached when P < 0.05. No statistically significant difference in the mean length of the CAG repeat was found between infertile and control groups (P = 0.47). Moreover, using KS test, we have not found a difference in the distribution of allele frequencies between infertile and controls (D(obs) = 0.046 < D(crit) = 0.180). We also did not found a statistically significant relationship between the size of the CAG repeat and impaired sperm production in Tunisian population. Our results may be attributed to the high probability that infertile males may represent a heterogeneous group with respect to the causes of defective spermatogenesis. FAU - Hadjkacem, Lobna AU - Hadjkacem L AD - Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire Humaine, Faculté de Médecine, Avenue Majida Boulila, 3028 Sfax, Tunisia. FAU - Hadj-Kacem, Hassen AU - Hadj-Kacem H FAU - Boulila, Amel AU - Boulila A FAU - Bahloul, Ali AU - Bahloul A FAU - Ayadi, Hammadi AU - Ayadi H