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TERRA: A Novel Biomarker of Embryo Quality and Art Outcome

Authors :
Andrea Garolla
Luca De Toni
Benedetta Iussig
Maria Santa Rocca
Ludovica Dusi
Carlo Foresta
Alberto Ferlin
Sara Bertelle
Erminia Alviggi
Andrea Di Nisio
Source :
Genes, Volume 12, Issue 4, Genes, Vol 12, Iss 475, p 475 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

Telomeres are considered to be an internal biological clock, and their progressive shortening has been associated with the risk of age-related diseases and reproductive alterations. Over recent years, an increasing number of studies have focused on the association between telomere length and fertility, identifying sperm telomere length (STL) as a novel biomarker of male fertility. Although typically considered to be repeated DNA sequences, telomeres have recently been shown to also include a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) known as TERRA (telomeric repeat-containing RNAs). Interestingly, males with idiopathic infertility show reduced testicular TERRA expression, suggesting a link between TERRA and male fertility. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of seminal TERRA expression in embryo quality. To this end, STL and TERRA expression were quantified by Real Time qPCR in the semen of 35 men who underwent assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and 30 fertile men. We found that TERRA expression in semen and STL was reduced in patients that underwent ART (both p &lt<br />0.001). Interestingly, TERRA and STL expressions were positively correlated (p = 0.010), and TERRA expression was positively associated with embryo quality (p &lt<br />0.001). These preliminary findings suggest a role for TERRA in the maintenance of sperm telomere integrity during gametogenesis, and for the first time, TERRA expression was found as a predictive factor for embryo quality in the setting of assisted reproduction.

Details

ISSN :
20734425
Volume :
12
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Genes
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....74739b7ad1986196d4f3c656aaf1d1f3
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12040475