Abstract
Study in smoking consequences with the knowledge of genetic background would help to understand the interaction of genes and smoking on male fertility. In this study, we examined two genetic variants of erythroid 2Crelated factor 2 (Nrf2), mRNA expression levels of Nrf2, catalase, superoxide dismutase isoenzyme‐2(SOD2), and glutathione S‐transferase‐M1, and seminal SOD activities in 314 heavy smokers and 314 age‐matched nonsmokers. Results showed that the Nrf2 rs6721961 TT genotype was associated with low semen quality in heavy smokers with an OR (95%CI) of 2.381(1.112–5.120), and this variant had a higher frequency in heavy smokers with low semen quality than in those with high quality (P=0.011). Heavy smokers with this genotype had significantly decreased sperm concentration and sperm count (P=0.0154 and P=0.0214) compared to non‐carriers, in addition to negatively affected sperm progressive motility and immotility rate (P=0.0537 and P=0.0543). Smoking also significantly decreased seminal SOD activity (P<0.05) and altered Nrf2 and SOD2 mRNA expression in heavy smokers with this variant. Our study suggests a novel synergetic effect of smoking and Nrf2 functional polymorphisms on human spermatogenesis. This study was supported by NSFC (81102474, 31170831), Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (S2011040003768), GTIB (12A52021552) and Guangzhou Medical University (2011C09).
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