P-41: Association Study of MICA*008 Gene Polymorphism with Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in Infertile Men Reffer to Royan Institute

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis(CT) is an obligate intracellular bacteria, requires living cells to replicate itself. CT infection can remain up to 4 years in the couple and affect their fertility. The relationship between CT and infertility is very important because most patients are asymptomatic and untreated. After infection with CT, NK activation signals begin through interactions of its receptors with molecules like MHC class I(MICA/B). Materials and Methods: Seven hundred patients with poor sperm parameters were selected for primary screening and detecting the presence of Chlamydia. ELISA test was performed for the presence of anti- CT IgA in these patients&#039; semen plasma. The Sperm&#039;s DNA was extracted in order to confirm the presence of Chlamydia. Chlamydia genome amplification was performed using specific primers. Among these samples, 62 patients were diagnosed with Chlamydia infection, in which 32 samples were symptomatic while the others were asymptomatic. Moreover 34 fertile men with normal spermogram and without any past history of CT infection were selected as controls. PCR-SSP method by eight primers were used to detect MICA*008 alleles. Results: The results indicate that the frequency of MICA*008 allele was significantly higher in control group than that of infected patients with CT (p<0.05). Although there were no significant difference between the allele frequency of control and symptomatic patients (p=0.193), it was higher in control group than in idiopathic group (p<0.05). Moreover, the frequency of this polymorphism was significantly higher in asymptomatic patients than in symptomatic patients (p=0.010). Conclusion: These results show that the presence of MICA*008 allele product may reduce the susceptibility of the host to be infected with CT and those with its protein have more resistant to Chlamydia infection. According to these results, MICA gene can be considered as a good candidate gene to determine the host potential genetic predisposition toward resistance against pathogens.