Association of Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) Receptor Gene Polymorphisms With Outcome of Controlled Ovarian Stimulation in Patients Undergoing IVF

Abstract

Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) using FSH is a widely used treatment in most assisted reproduction techniques. FSH triggers the maturation of follicles and plays a pivotal role in the recruitment of the dominant follicle. These important actions of FSH are mediated by the FSH receptor. In this study, we evaluated the association of FSH receptor gene polymorphisms with outcome of COH in patients undergoing IVF. Analysis of genetic screening data and clinical outcome Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 202 women, including 141 ones were undergoing COH. We investigated the frequency of FSH receptor variants, Thr307Ala (T/A) and Asn680Ser (N/S) polymorphisms by using polymerase chain reactions and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Their clinical outcome such as basal FSH level, estradiol level at administration of hCG, dosage of FSH treated, number of retrieved oocytes and pregnancy rates were compared related to their genotypes. In a population of 202 Korean women, the frequency of TT/NN, TA/NS and AA/SS for the variant Thr307Al a and Asn680Ser was 50.0%, 36.6% and 9.9%, respectively. The frequency of the unlinked genotypes, TA/NN, TT/NS, AA/NN and AA/NS were 2.0%, 0.5%, 0.5% and 0.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the basal FSH level, dosage of FSH treated and pregnancy rate among the COH-IVF patients with different genotypes. However, the proportion of good responder, which is higher estradiol level (> 2,000 pmol/L) at administration of hCG and number of retrieved oocytes (> 10 oocytes), in AA/SS genotype (81.8% and 63.6%) was higher than those of TT/NN (37.3% and 46.7%) and TA/NS (38.1% and 41.8%). We found that Korean AA/SS genotype of FSH receptor was good responder of FSH treatment in COH for IVF. This finding is contrast to the reports with other ethnic populations. Our data should be substantiated by the further studies of FSH receptor genotyping in the Korean population.