Objective: Recently, the FCRL3 -169T>C (rs7528684) single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has been demonstrated to be a risk factor of endometriosis related infertility. We studied whether the FCRL -169T>C SNP can be associated with endometriosis-related infertility in a sample of the Polish population
Methods: Using PCR-RFLP analysis we genotyped 141 infertile women with endometriosis and 519 fertile women. FCRL3 transcript levels were determined by reverse transcription and real-time quantitative PCR analysis in CD19(+) B cells from women with endometriosis-associated infertility and fertile women
Results: We found a significantly increased frequency of the FCRL3 C/C genotype in women with endometriosis-associated infertility than controls [OR = 1.681 (95 % CI = 1.120-2.522, p = 0.0116, p corr = 0.0348)]. There was also a statistically increased frequency of the C/C and C/T genotypes in patients compared with controls [OR = 2.009 (95 % CI = 1.214-3.324, p = 0.0059, p corr = 0.0177)]. The p value of the χ (2) test for the trend observed for the FCRL3 -169T>C polymorphism was also statistically significant (p trend = 0.0012, p corr = 0.0036). We also found significantly increased FCRL3 transcript levels in carriers of the FCRL3 -169 CC vs TT and CT vs TT genotype both in women with endometriosis-related infertility (p = 0.012; p = 0.015) and fertile women (p = 0.017; p = 0.032) CONCLUSIONS: FCRL3 -169T>C polymorphism alters the expression of FCRL3 and can be a risk factor of endometriosis-related infertility.