Estrogen receptor α gene (ESR1) polymorphisms associated with idiopathic premature ovarian failure in Chinese women

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between Estrogen receptor α gene (ESR1) polymorphisms and idiopathic premature ovarian failure (POF) in Chinese women. Methods: 155 idiopathic POF and 150 healthy controls were recruited in this study. All subjects were analyzed at the PvuII and XbaI loci of the ESR1 gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Results: The frequency of the P allele of the PvuII polymorphisms was 38.1% in POF women, which was significantly higher than controls (28.0%) (p = 0.008). And for the XbaI polymorphisms, the X allele was 21.0% in POF patients, compared to 13.3% in control women (p = 0.013). Carriers of the PP genotype had higher increased risk of POF than those of the pp genotypes (p = 0.011), whereas in three genotypes of the XbaI polymorphisms, no difference was found in the prediction value of POF. In addiction, the P-X haplotype was associated with a significantly increased risk for idiopathic POF. Conclusion: These data suggest that the PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of ESR1 gene are associated with POF, which may be a potential genetic risk factor of idiopathic POF. More researches are needed to determine whether the findings are generalizable to other populations.

Keywords::

• ESR1
• estrogen receptor
• genetic
• polymorphism
• premature ovarian failure

Acknowledgements

We thank all the subjects for their participation in this research. We also thank the clinical coworkers from the department of Reproductive Medicine, for their support to the POF project.

Declaration of Interest: This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB945104). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.