Existence of Inhibin α-Subunit Gene Mutation in a Population of Iranian Women with Premature Ovarian Failure

Remature ovarian failure (pof) is charac-terized by hypergonadotropic amenorr-hea, before the age of 40, for which the inhibin α-subunit (inhα) gene is pro-posed as a candidate gene, due to its role in negative feedback control of fsh. in this study we aimed at demonstrating the candidate mutation as a gene variation associated with pof in iranian population. materials & methods: using dna sequencing, dna samples of 24 women with pof and 24 controls, aged below 40 years, were screened for mutations in the inhibin gene. results: the 769g→a mutation in exon 2 of the inhibin-α gene was found in four out of 24 idi-opathic pof patients. conclusion: the results obtained in this study have shown that this variation is more frequent in patients with pof than in normal fertile pop-ulations of iran.