A Novel Compound Heterozygous Mutation of FSHR Causes Primary Ovarian Insufficiency
Abstract Background: Primary ovarian insufficiency, one of the main causes of female infertility, is a heterogeneous disease when it comes to the phenotype and etiology. Familial cases are observed in approximately 10% of patients which indicates a strong genetic component. However, the underlying cause remains to be identified in most cases of patients.Methods: Here we studied an un-consanguineous Han Chinese family in which four siblings are primary amenorrhea and hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. Three siblings with POI and one unaffected sibling were exome sequenced. Also, other members in this family were genotyped by Sanger Sequencing. In silicon and in-vitro functional analyses were performed.Results: Whole exome sequencing identified a shared novel compound heterozygous mutation of FSHR gene in all the affected members. c.1412T>G, the first variant identified in FSHR IL2(intracellular loop2) in POI patients, and another novel mutation c.1090_1091del were the genetic etiology of this family. In-vitro functional analyses showed that cAMP (second messenger of FSHR) producing was abolished by c.1412T>G. Conclusions: Our study identified two novel FSHR mutations in a compound heterozygous state and gave the evidence that the FSHR IL2 could play a crucial role in FSHR-caused POI.