Adiponectin gene polymorphisms may not be associated with idiopathic premature ovarian failure

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a syndrome characterized by loss of ovarian function before the age of 40 years. Adiponectin, a protein secreted by adipose tissue, exerts beneficial effects on glucose and lipid metabolism. Transcription of adiponectin and its receptor gene is correlated with follicular development. POF, as a type of pathological ovarian aging, is associated with an increase in fat mass and body weight, in which adiponectin may be involved. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between adiponectin gene polymorphisms and idiopathic POF in Chinese women. We examined DNA samples of the variant SmaI (rs2241766) and BsmI (rs1501299) loci of the adiponectin gene in 120 POF patients and 104 controls. Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism were used to assess these genotype variants. Our results showed that the genotype distributions of the SmaI and BsmI polymorphisms did not significantly differ between the patients with idiopathic POF and the controls. Moreover, no significant difference was found between the controls and POF patients in the haplotype analysis. This suggests that the SmaI and BsmI polymorphisms of adiponectin gene might not be responsible for idiopathic POF, at least, in the Chinese population. More researches are required to determine whether these findings can be extrapolated to other populations.