Tumor necrosis factor alpha polymorphisms and risk of male infertility
Keywords:
Infertility, TNF-a, smoking, polymorphismAbstract
Background: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha is a multifunctional cytokine that controls spermatogenesis-related cellular functions. Objective: To investigate the association of TNF-a-308 gene Polymorphism with idiopathic male infertility by using PCR and ELISA. Methods: This case-control study was conducted during January to December 2021 was included 50 infertile males attending the Center of infertility in Wasit governorate compared with 50 fertile males as control group. From each participant blood and semen samples were collected according to the standard method. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) 308 genotyping was done by using allele-specific PCR while TNF-a serum levels were measured by using sandwich ELISA method. Results: Serum level of TNF-a in patients was 27.63 pg/ml while in control group was 8.08 pg/ml with significant difference P<0.001, on the other hand there was none significant difference between both studied groups regarding seminal plasma concentration of TNF-a (p- value=0.193). The results found that Tumor Necrosis Factor –alph-308 A allele was with higher frequent among infertile males (70%) than fertile males. In addition present study showed higher rate of G allele of TNFR1 36 in patients (64%) as compared with control group (36%) with statistically significant difference )P=0.001). As well as the current work revealed higher serum TNF-a level in patients carrying AA genotype of TNF-a 308 comparying with patients have GG genotype but statistically not significant. In addition current study showed inverse correlation between seminal plasma TNF-a level with concentration of sperms. Aa well as there was increase in TNF-a serum levels in smoker patients as compared with non smokers but statistically not significant (P=0.60). Also there was lower sperm concentration and grade A of motility in smokers pateints as compared with non smokers with statistically significant difference. Conclusion: Seminal plasma TNF-a level may negatively affect sperm concentration, grading of motility and morphology, also the smoking habit may inversely affect sperm concentration and grade of motility