association of androgen receptor cag repeat length with polycystic ovary syndrome in an iranian female population

Background: the androgen receptor (ar) signaling pathway is pivotal in the development of polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos). the ar gene contains a variable trinucleotide cag repeat, which may influence receptor activity. previous studies examining the association between cag repeat length and pcos have yielded conflicting results. objectives: the present study aimed to investigate the correlation between the length of cag repeats in the ar gene and the risk of pcos in iranian women. methods: this study involved 51 women with pcos and 58 healthy women of the same age, selected from health centers in shahrekord, iran. genotyping of cag repeats in the ar gene was conducted using pcr-based methods. the distribution of cag repeat lengths and their mean values were compared between cases and controls. results: in patients with pcos, the number of cag repeats ranged from 7 to 27, whereas in the control group, it ranged from 7 to 24. the bi-allelic cag means varied between 10 and 23.5 in both groups. the average cag repeat length did not differ significantly between the pcos and control groups (p = 0.189). short and extreme alleles were approximately 12% and 13% more frequent in controls, respectively, while moderate-length alleles were 13% more frequent in pcos cases. however, these differences were not statistically significant. conclusions: this study found no significant association between the length of cag repeats in the ar gene and the risk of pcos in iranian women. although minor differences in allele distribution were observed, they were not statistically significant. further studies with larger populations are recommended.