PARP Gene Variants and Male Infertility: A Genetic Prescriptive From a North-Indian Cohort

To investigate the association between PARP14 (rs11719086) and PARP15 (rs12489170) gene variants and the risk of male infertility in the North Indian population of Jammu and Kashmir.

A total of 222 clinically diagnosed infertile men and 360 healthy fertile controls from the Jammu and Kashmir region were enrolled in this case-control study. Genotyping of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), PARP14 rs11719086 and PARP15 rs12489170, was performed using TaqMan allelic discrimination assay. Statistical analysis was carried out using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, BMI, smoking and alcohol use.

PARP14 rs11719086 (G>A) was found to be strongly associated with the risk of male infertility under the dominant model (OR = 4.41, 95% CI: 2.95-6.58, P = 3.76 × 10^-13). Conversely, a moderate protective effect was demonstrated by PARP15 rs12489170 under the dominant model (OR = 0.579, 95% CI:0.393-0.852, P = .006), suggesting a potential modulatory role that would require further validation in larger cohorts.

This is the first study to investigate the association of PARP family genes (PARP14 and PARP15) with male infertility in North India. Our findings emphasize the significance of DNA repair mechanisms in spermatogenesis and support region-specific molecular screening to move forward with advanced predictive diagnostics and customized treatment in the understudied South Asian populations.