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Gene expression and demographic analyses in women with the poor ovarian response: a computational approach

  • Assisted Reproduction Technologies
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Poor response to ovarian stimulation (POR) typically is reflected as decreased follicular response and low estradiol (E2) levels following ovarian stimulation by FSH/HMG. Many genes are involved in oocyte maturation, and demographic features and lifestyle can affect the oocyte maturity and developmental competence. The present study was conducted to investigate the magnitude of gene expression and lifestyle habits in POR women as compared to healthy women, using different statistical and computational methods.

Methods

Fifty women in the two groups were studied. The study groups included POR women (n = 25) with 1–9 released oocytes, and the control group (normal women, n = 25) with 9–15 released oocytes. Quantitative PCR was used to estimate the expression of FIGLA, ZAR1, WNT4, LHX8, APC, H1FOO, MOS, and DMC1 genes in granulosa cells.

Results

The results showed no significant difference in the magnitude of the studied genes’ expression and linear discriminant analysis did not differentiate the studied groups based on all the genes together. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and latent factor mixed model (LFMM) results produce no significant association between the genes’ expression magnitude and the geographical variables of the patients’ local habitat. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of the demographic features differentiated the two groups of women.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that demographic features may have an effect on sample gene expression levels.

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Data availability

The current study is not publicly available due to personal document confidentiality. Data are available from the corresponding author on request.

Abbreviations

POR:

Poor response to ovarian stimulation

OS:

Ovarian stimulation

ART:

Assisted reproductive technology

ICSI:

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection

AMH:

Anti-mullerian hormone

AFC:

Antral follicle count

PBS:

Phosphate-buffered saline

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

KEGG:

Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes

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Acknowledgements

We thank the patients for their help. We also acknowledge the Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University for providing a laboratory.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Nastaran Bahrami, Arnoosh Nazari, Zahra Afshari, Somayeh Aftabsavad & Zahra Noormohammadi

  2. Department of Endocrinology and Female Infertility, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

    Ashraf Moini

  3. Breast Disease Research Center (BDRC), Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

    Ashraf Moini

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Arash Women’s Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Ashraf Moini

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  1. Nastaran Bahrami
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Contributions

ZN and AM had conventionalization of the project, ZN and SA wrote the main manuscript test, ZN did data analyses, NB, AN and, ZA collected samples and performed laboratory work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zahra Noormohammadi.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The project proposal was reviewed by the Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, and was approved with the ID number No. IR.IAU.SRB.REC.1400.296. Informed consent was obtained from individuals.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bahrami, N., Nazari, A., Afshari, Z. et al. Gene expression and demographic analyses in women with the poor ovarian response: a computational approach. J Assist Reprod Genet 40, 2627–2638 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-023-02919-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-023-02919-4

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