Oestrogen receptors beta genotype in infertile Egyptian men with nonobstructive azoospermia

Summary In a prospective study, the polymorphism of oestrogen receptor β gene was investigated in nonobstructive azoospermia patients. Ninety infertile patients with nonobstructive azoospermia diagnosed after two semen analysis, 2 weeks apart and negative testicular sperm extraction during intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and 60 fertile men as controls were enrolled in the study. Semen analysis, hormonal profile and allele-specific PCR reaction were performed to detect variants of the RsaI polymorphism of the oestrogen receptor β gene for all patients and controls. The mean patient's age was significantly lower than the mean age of the controls (P   0.05). Our findings suggested that in Egyptian population, genetic mutation in ERs is associated with the risk of nonobstructive azoospermia.