The role of tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic pathway in femaleinfertility: The relationship between SLC6A3 (DAT1) gene variants and infertility

Infertility is defined as the inability to achieve clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse in couples of reproductive age. It is estimated that infertility affects 8-12% of couples of reproductive age worldwide. The number of infertility patients caused by gynecological diseases is much higher than that of men. Infertility is affected by factors such as infection, oxidative stress, obesity, diet, female or male diseases, and studies show that genetic factors are highly effective on infertility. Prolactin (PRL), which is closely related to female fertility and has a direct effect on the ovary, is a protein-structured hormone released from the anterior pituitary gland. The tuberoinfundibular pathway, which is one of the dopaminergic pathways, regulates PRL release. Regulation of extracellular dopamine (DA) level; It occurs by intrasynaptic enzyme degradation and reuptake into the presynaptic cell by the presynaptic dopamine transporter (DAT). The DAT protein, which is directly related to the tuberoinfundibular pathway and dopamine neurotransmission, is very important for understanding DA function and neurotransmission. The aim of this thesis study is to determine the relationship between female infertility and SLC6A3 (DAT1) gene variants in the Turkish population. 90 infertile and 98 fertile women were included in this study and DAT1 VNTR variants were analyzed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). It was determined that in the infertile subgroups, patients with Unexplained Infertility constituted the greatest majority, while there was a significant relationship between AMH values and their age, there was no significant difference between FSH and E2 values. As a result of the comparison of the infertile and fertile groups, it was determined that there was no statistically significant relationship between the VNTR polymorphism in the SLC6A3 (DAT1) gene and female infertility (p=0.425). There is a need for different population studies investigating the relationship between the VNTR polymorphism in the SLC6A3 (DAT1) gene and female infertility and increasing the sample size. It is thought that our study will contribute to new studies investigating the effects of the dopaminergic system on infertility.