The Reporter: February 1997, Vol.8, No.1
Research Notes
Heart Disease Gene Linked to Infertility

A gene that helps control cholesterol levels also may play a role in male infertility, according to a collaborative study between researchers at P&S and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The study, published in an October 1996 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, marks the first time a genetic factor affecting male fertility has been identified on a chromosome other than the Y chromosome.

Dr. Li-Shin Huang, P&S assistant professor of medicine and a co-author on the paper, discovered that genetically engineered mice with only one working copy of the apolipoprotein B (apo B) gene, normally associated with coronary heart disease, were infertile.

The researchers found that sperm of the mice were not able to penetrate the zona pellucida--the elastic envelope that surrounds an ovum. They also discovered that apo B messenger RNA (mRNA) was expressed in the testis of normal mice. Previously, scientists believed apo B mRNA was expressed only in the liver and intestine of such mice.