altered of microrna expression level in oligospermic patients

background: microrna (mirna) is small endogenous, single strand rna molecules that regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level through several mechanisms to affect key cellular event including male germ cells differentiation, proliferation, development and apoptosis. mutation and/or aberrant expression of mirnas have been associated with progression of various disorders, including infertility. objective: the purpose of this research was to study the estrogen receptor beta (erβ), hsa-mir-21 and, hsa-mir-22 expression level in oligospermic infertile and control fertile men and correlation between them. materials and methods: in this study, the change in mir-21, mir-22 expression and their common target gene (erβ) expression levels were evaluated in oligospermic infertile men (n= 43) compared with 43 age matched healthy control by real-time pcr methods. results: expression analysis by qrt-pcr test on mirna have identified that mir-21, mir-22 levels were significantly higher than those in normal controls (p<0.0001) and erβ expression level significantly decreased in comparison with the normal group (p<0.0001). conclusion: our study showed that mir-21 and mir-22 are indirectly involved in spermatogenesis by regulating of the estrogen receptor and might have a diagnostic and prognostic value in men infertility