Altered of microRNA expression level in oligospermic patients

Background: microrna (mirna) is small endogenous, single strand rna molecules that regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level through several mechanisms to affect key cellular event including male germ cells differentiation, proliferation, development and apoptosis. mutation and/or aberrant expression of mirnas have been associated with progression of various disorders, including infertility.objective: the purpose of this research was to study the estrogen receptor beta(erb), hsa-mir-21 and, hsa-mir-22 expression level in oligospermic infertile andcontrol fertile men and correlation between them.materials and methods: in this study, the change in mir-21, mir-22 expression and their common target gene (erb) expression levels were evaluated in oligospermic infertile men (n= 43) compared with 43 age matched healthy control by real-time pcr methods.results: expression analysis by qrt-pcr test on mirna have identified that mir-21, mir-22 levels were significantly higher than those in normal controls (p < 0.0001) and erb expression level significantly decreased in comparison with the normal group (p < 0.0001).conclusion: our study showed that mir-21 and mir-22 are indirectly involved in spermatogenesis by regulating of the estrogen receptor and might have a diagnostic and prognostic value in men infertility.