Methylation Status of Mthfr Promoter and Oligozoospermia Risk: An Epigenetic Study and in Silico Analysis

Objective: in this study, we evaluated the effects of promoter methylation of mthfr on oligozoospermia risk, followed by an in silico analysis. materials and methods: in a case-control study, semen samples were collected from infertile and healthy control men. mthfr promoter region was amplified by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (pcr). finally, the promoter region of mthfr was analyzed by bioinformatics software. results: our data revealed significant associations of cpg island promoter methylation with oligozoospermia in a case-control study. in silico analysis showed that promoter contains a strong nucleosome exclusion region, a bonafide cgis, six prosite motifs without a defined tata box and 14 transcription factor (tf) binding sites, which are directly involved in spermatogenesis conclusion: based on our findings, methylation of the mthfr gene promoter region may be a risk factor for oligozoospermia. however, this is a preliminary report representing data for future comprehensive studies to make a clinical conclusion on the potential biomarker role of methylation of this promoter in elevating susceptibility to oligozoospermia.